ASSISTANCE:THE PSNI has offered the London Metropolitan Police a number of Land Rovers to assist in its attempts to quell the recent nights of rioting in the British capital.
However, former PSNI chief constable Sir Hugh Orde indicated yesterday it is unlikely that it will be requested to supply water cannon or that its officers will be called upon to fire plastic bullets at rioters or to guide London police in the use of these baton rounds.
The PSNI made its offer after a request from the British Police National Information Co-ordination Centre (PNICC) which is responsible for overseeing UK-wide emergency responses.
The PNICC issued a blanket request to all UK police forces to assess what would be available to assist police in London.
The PSNI said that due to “operational commitments” it was currently unable to provide any officers to assist their colleagues in London, but that it has “offered a number of Land Rover vehicles for assistance”.
The PSNI and the Royal Ulster Constabulary before it have decades of experience of major urban riots. The PSNI also has six water cannon, some of which were used during street disturbances this summer, particularly at Ardoyne on the Twelfth of July.
Sir Hugh, who is president of the British Association of Chief Police Officers, indicated that he would have no need of water cannon at this stage.
He also counselled against calls for the use of plastic bullets, as the PSNI quite frequently use.
He told reporters that water cannon was a “blunt instrument” which was good at keeping distance in static crowds. He added, “That is not the challenge London faces, that is not the challenge West Midlands faces. So, uninformed comments around ‘let’s bring in water cannon, let’s start firing baton rounds’ frankly are not clever, not sensible and operationally at the moment probably not necessary.”
However, he emphasised, there would be a “relentless follow-up” against troublemakers. “People may be sitting at home at the moment feeling clever but rest assured knocks on their doors over the next few days, or even their doors disappearing as police officers come in to arrest them, is very much the reality,” he said.
