Radio failings left riots police using own mobiles

Police were forced to use their own mobile phones during the August riots in England after a multi-billion-pound radio system collapsed, according to a leaked internal report on how forces responded to the disorder.

The Police Federation review revealed that the failings of the digital Airwave radio network used by the Metropolitan Police was one of the reasons why the capital’s officers were “always approximately half-an-hour behind the rioters”, it was reported.

This is partly why officers kept arriving at areas where the disorder had moved on from, the document said. It added: “Officers on the ground and in command resorted to the use of mobile phones to co-ordinate a response.”

The internal review also reveals that after the trouble erupted, “forces often did not know how may officers they had on or off shift” and senior officers took charge in some places “often without the local knowledge of the areas”, making it easier to be outmanoeuvred by rioters.

It also concluded that severe equipment shortages among officers meant they were unable to be mobilised in a public order capacity.