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The president of the Association of British Chief Police Officers, Sir Hugh Orde, has described politicians´ role in tackling the unrest as an “irrelevance.”
After Prime Minister David Cameron criticized the tactics employed by the Metropolitan Police when he said the Police force failed because they had not deployed enough officers on the streets, Orde tried to hit back by humiliating the eventual decision of top politicians, including Cameron, to cut short their holidays.
“The fact that politicians chose to come back is an irrelevance in terms of the tactics that were by then developing," said Orde.
Moreover, Orde dismissed that the more efficient tactics employed by the Metropolitan police were the result of political interference saying those robust policing tactics “were a function of the numbers being available to allow the chief constables to change their tactics.”
Orde´s remarks were aimed at what Cameron had implied in his criticisms against the Metropolitan police.
Cameron already said that the initial policing tactics were quite inefficient because “far too few” officers had been put on the streets. Cameron´s comments implied that the Cobra meetings he had chaired contributed to the “decisive action to help ensure more robust and more effective policing.”
Furthermore, Orde criticized the government´s policies for budget cuts and acknowledged that budget cuts would further endanger public safety because they would “inevitably” result in even fewer police officer.
However, British Communities Secretary, Eric Pickles, also attacked Orde as he referred to the Cobra meeting saying “I never had any doubt who was in charge of that meeting and that was the Prime Minister.”
Moreover, Orde already clashed with the Prime Minister when Cameron said at the Parliament that “radical proposals” for policing system were desirable. Under the new proposals, foreign police chiefs could be granted entry into British police force. Orde described such proposals as “stupid.”
The Metropolitan Police stated it had arrested over 1,000 people of whom around 600 have been charged.
End.
Last Updated: 14 August 2011
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