Far-right
riots: Starmer announces setting up of new violent disorder unit
PM and
police chiefs agree plans for unit that aims to boost intelligence gathering on
‘extremist troublemakers’
Vikram Dodd
Police and crime correspondent
Thu 1 Aug
2024 16.39 BST
A new
national violent disorder unit is to be set up to clamp down on rioters, the
Guardian has learned, after far-right riots this week.
Keir Starmer
made the official announcement on Thursday, having agreed it with police chiefs
at a crisis meeting.
Speaking
during a press conference held after the meeting with senior police chiefs, Sir
Keir thanked police officers who “stood up to intimidation and violence”.
He said the
meeting was held to “pull together our response, response both to the immediate
challenge which is clearly driven by far-right hatred, but also all violent
disorder that flares up whatever the apparent cause or motivation”.
The unit
will aim to boost intelligence gathering and sharing on looming trouble and
comes after police were surprised by the scale of disorder on Tuesday in
Southport, with further disorder in London and Hartlepool on Wednesday.
The unit is
intended to improve the gathering and sharing of intelligence on known
“extremist troublemakers” from all parts of the ideological spectrum. It is
also hoped to enhance sharing of community tension indicators and the
coordination of mutual aid, where specially riot trained officers are rushed
from one area to another.
It is hoped
that by boosting the number of specialist public order officers who can be
rushed into an area of trouble, the number of arrests when violence breaks out
can be increased.
The unit
will sit with the national police operations centre, which is part of the
National Police Chiefs’ Council.
The plans
were drafted by Downing Street, and a source said police chiefs meeting Starmer
in No 10 on Thursday were in broad agreement.
The
financing and details of the unit are yet to be ironed out. Consideration is to
be given to the potential greater use of live facial recognition at places
where disorder is expected or has broken out.
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