It only needed a spark...then louts saw their chance to cause mayhem

Those are the views of one officer who stood on the front line in last week’s riots as bricks and petrol bombs rained down on him and his colleagues.

Speaking anonymously to protect his career, the experienced officer, who lives in Essex but serves in the capital, says the riots came as little surprise to many of his colleagues.

“Officers around the country can tell you there is a minority of young people who hate their community and society as a whole and, most of all, they hate the police,” he said.

“All that was needed to start the riots was a spark and then, once the trouble had started, a lot of people thought they could get away with causing mayhem – and they were right.”

This week politicians have vowed to tackle the rise in gang culture, which has spread like a cancer through some communities. On the streets, officers have seen it spread like wildfire.

The officer continued: “There have always been gangs of one sort or another, but now they mirror the American gangs in language – and violence.

“I don[‘t know why. Lack of role models, lack of a traditional family structure, fewer job opportunities, but these gangs give young people a support network and a structure to their lives they don't get anywhere else.

“At the core of gangs is always hatred, against other people, society in general or anyone in authority. There has also been an increase in racial diversity in some of the communities, which creates further tension.”

With such sentiments on the boil, he says there are simply not enough officers to keep a lid on it.

“When politicians talk about police numbers, it hides the fact forces are fragmented,” he says.

“The majority of officers work in special teams, everything from transport safety to patrolling city parks.

“The actual number of officers who are available to respond to incidents and emergencies, and can instantly be called upon to tackle outbreaks of social unrest, is laughably low. In of London there might be eight officers on duty covering areas which contain hundreds of thousands.

“Obviously, when just a small section of that population decides to cause trouble, it is almost impossible for it to be instantly contained.”

Since the riots, politicians and police top brass have been embroiled in rows over the police’s supposedly sluggish response to the riots.

He said: “There have been changes at the top of the Met Police because of the phone hacking scandal and that could have had an impact. But it takes brave officers to almost declare a state of emergency, cancel leave and bring in thousands of officers for what could have been an isolated night of trouble.

“The fact is, we simply did not immediately have the resources to police these incidents properly. You can’t send a handful of officers to confront crowds of rioters.”

Once the trouble had started, he reveals it was difficult to quell it.

“For a start, it’s not easy to catch these people. We are wearing about a stone of riot kit and these are mainly young people, many on bikes.

“At the first sight of officers, they scatter and then gather together somewhere else and cause trouble again. They know the area like the back of their hands, so for a lot of the time we were chasing our tails.”

If the yobs are caught, that can actually cause more problems, he says.

“The Police and Criminal Evidence Act means they have to be processed as soon as possible, which means returning to the station.

“When resources are tight and you have a squad of eight officers with one van, this might mean all eight have to go back because you cannot leave officers without transport in those circumstances.”

But if there is one issue that riles him most, it is the criminal justice system.

“Almost every officer you speak to despairs of it. It is quite difficult to actually get sent to prison nowadays. But when you are in there, you get so looked after that it is a completely cushy number. Reoffending rates are sky high and we spend 90 per cent of our time dealing with the same 2 or 3 per cent of the population, most of whom will have been to prison before and are not worried about going back in. It might not seem particularly enlightened, if we had Third World prison conditions, and it was a place people were truly afraid of being sent to, would it be more of a deterrent? For so many people now it simply isn’t.”

Paperwork is another complaint. He says: “There are so many forms to fill in for every arrest, which takes you back to the station for hours, you can actually do more good by not arresting people and staying on the street.” Then there are Government targets.

“In response teams you have set times to respond to calls,” he says. “When you arrive, you might be faced with a 97-year-old pensioner who has been burgled. She’s terrified, but if you stay too long you may miss answering another call.” With police cuts on the horizon, there are fears the situation could get worse.

He said: “We need a fundamental change of procedures and the justice system. We spend so much time dealing with a few people who wreck society for the rest of us. It can’t be allowed to go on.”