27 May 2016

London Riots: August 2011

Jason Killens

Deputy Director of Operations

London Riots: August 2011

1. Background

2. What happened

3. LAS response

4. Mitigation

5. Additionally and ongoing disorder

6. Resilience

7. Lessons and learning going forward

8. The international dimension

2

3

Background

• Fatally shot by

Police

• Thursday 4th August

• In Tottenham

• LAS attendance to

the scene

• IPCC investigation

3

What happened

• Peaceful vigil for Marc Duggan in Tottenham,

N17 outside Police Station on evening of

Saturday 6th August

• Around 300 protestors begun to attack the

Police Station

• Police came under attack

• Disorder spread through N17 and continued

through the night

4

5

LAS response

• On call staff attend for

duty

• Solo responding

withdrawn

• Public Order trained and

equipped staff deployed

• Command team

established

• LAS liaison in Police

control room

• Incident control room

(ICR) opened

5

Strategic intentions set

6

Maintain the provision of emergency ambulance services to

London and in doing so:

1. Preserve and protect lives including LAS staff assigned to the

incident (and limit the impact on the environment)

2. Mitigate and minimise the impact of the incident to the wider

NHS

3. Inform the public and maintain public confidence

4. Ensure sufficient assets are available to manage both the

incident and core activity to maintain service delivery to

national standards

5. Assist an early return to normality

7

Staff Safety

• Solo responding

withdrawn

• Automatic dispatch

deactivated within seat if

disorder (locality footprint)

• Ambulance stations

closed

• Special CAD footprints

created

• Police escorts to some

locations

7

8

Impact of no lone working

• Solo responders (FRU, MRU, CRU) withdrawn on staff safety

grounds

• Negative impact on ability to reach calls quickly

• Special arrangements in EOC required

• Live adjustments to CAD system necessary

• Introduction of locality footprints to enable tight management of

automatic dispatch

• FRED/FREDA deactivated

• Increased manual dispatches with slower call handling time

• Dynamic decision on each call in locality of disorder as to what

and when to send

9

Public Order (PO) staff

• Train and exercise with

MPS Public Order

teams

• Personal Protective

Equipment (PPE)

• Work forward of safe

area and behind Police

lines

• £1.5k per person

10

Deploying PO teams

• Authority of Gold

Commander

• Under direction of

PO Tactical (Silver)

Commander only

• Within specific

safety requirements

• Highly flexible staff

Mitigation

• Planning assumption of days of disorder to

follow

• 24/7 Command Team at Strategic, Tactical

and Operational levels resourced

• ICR and Police Control liaison staffed 24/7

• Public order teams resourced for late and

night shifts (drawn from BAU staffing)

11

12

Ongoing disorder

• Disorder continued in

London on Sunday and

Monday

• Consisted of criminal

damage, looting, arson and

assault

• Seats of disorder in other

cities around UK

• 120 disorder related

casualties on Monday

• Damage to LAS vehicles

13

Monday 8th August

• Attendance at multiagency Gold co-ordinating

groups (for the week)

• 29 out of 33 local authorities see disorder

• 1333 businesses affected

• 500 crime scenes

• 1700 calls to London Fire Brigade

• Emergency calls to Police up 400%

14

Review of LAS tactics

• Revised locality footprints from 1

Saturday, 6 Monday to 26 from Tuesday

• Attendance at some calls withheld on

safety grounds

• Require Police escort to some locations

15

Community impact

• 17 health related premises suffer damage

• 2 hospitals affected by disorder

• 237 Police Officers injured

• 157 residential properties damaged

• 90 families displaced in Croydon

• In excess of 1800 arrests, over 1300 charged

with court appearances to follow

16

Demand and performance

Demand

• 14% drop in MPS

related calls

• Drop in Cat A calls

in Haringey and

Croydon

• Overall down c10%

in 2 weeks post riots

Performance

• Saturday in

Tottenham: 60% A8

• Monday in Croydon:

30% A8

• LAS 8/8: 67% A8

17

LAS Additionality

• LAS strategic briefing document for partners

• 24/7 strategic and tactical command team

• 24/7 on duty Public Order response teams

• ICR and GT staffed

• External meeting attendance

• Significant disruption to BAU

• Overtime and accommodation costs

18

Staff reassurance

19

20

Resilience

• BAU staffing up 10% for

following weekend

• Following month RAG risk

assessed (each day)

• LRT resilience forum

• PO teams rostered to duty

for 4 weeks

• PO commanders on call

for 4 weeks

• Key staff briefings

Lessons identified

• LAS post weekend debrief and midweek review

• National ambulance review in October

• Dynamic, quick time decision making necessary

• In depth knowledge of systems and processes

necessary to take full advantage of dynamic options

available

• Internal full debrief to follow

• Command team resilience

• Public order trained and equipped staff necessary

21

Lessons identified (2)

• Loggist and critical loggist in PO scenarios

• Ability print large maps at HQ

• Additional white boards in ECR

• More granular event footprint

• Clarity of messages to wider system

• Command admin support cell/intelligence cell

• Use of central email address for

intelligence/information

22

23

Staff/service recognition

24

Letters of thanks

• Received in days

following disorder

• From public and individual

police officers

• Acknowledging bravery,

professionalism and

commitment to serve the

public during unpredicted

circumstances

25

Comments from letters… The sky was literally raining bricks, bottles and petrol bombs and other heavy hard objects. Buildings and

vehicles were on fire and the street was covered in hazardous items. I was unfortunately struck by a brick

and taken to your ambulance staff on scene. Nicola was dressed in public order kit too and I knew that she

had been very close to the violence too. I was full of mixed emotion and extremely pleased to see Nicola

there and can not thank her enough for how she made me feel and for caring for my injuries……. I was

amazed to see the LAS working alongside us in this way and I am extremely grateful to everyone of your

staff who helped rescue us.

Public Order PC

We also saw the true spirit of London in the response to the riots. I know that every single London Ambulance

Service Officer stepped up to the mark during the disturbances, displaying bravery as they helped the

people injured…… Londoners are rightly proud of our ambulance service.

Boris Johnson, Mayor of London

I wanted to say a huge thank you for looking after and treating my boyfriend last night during the riots. He is one

of the police officers injured during the riots and also his mates who were also injured. I cant imagine what it

must have been like for you guys out there, it must have been an absolute nightmare and also quite

frightening.

EMT/Student Paramedic

26

The international dimension

• Reported around the World

• Reputational issues for UK Plc

• Olympic and Paralympic Games

• UK trade and investment