Met’s new chief says force’s response to riot was slow and under-resourced

SCOTLAND Yard failed to get enough officers in place and with sufficient speed as the force got its tactics wrong in tackling this summer’s riots, the new commissioner of the Metropolitan Police has revealed.

Bernard Hogan-Howe said people saw violence and looting on the streets and thought they could get away with it, too.

Mr Hogan-Howe’s criticism of the Yard’s tactics before he took over two weeks ago came as he added he wanted to make the police more visible.

The Met was on the back foot during August’s riots as it had neither the intelligence on what would happen next nor the numbers of officers on the streets to cope, he said. Asked if the Met’s tactics were wrong, while those used in his former force – Merseyside, where many extra officers were immediately put on the streets – were right, Mr Hogan-Howe said: “I’m not disagreeing with that.

“I don’t think anything I’ve said today is inconsistent with that. But the great benefit, of course, that they had was that they had 24 hours’ notice.”

Giving evidence to MPs on the Commons home affairs select committee, Mr Hogan-Howe said the force needed to review its intelligence, resources and tactics in the wake of the riots.

He said: “We need to review our tactics to make sure we are far more flexible than we appeared on those three days.

“It does seem to me that on the Saturday there was a riot, people were angry, and there was a response against the police and that led to serious disorder.

“We have to respond very rigorously at the beginning to stop it getting out of control.”