POLICE BOSS DEFENDS RESPONSE:
THE man responsible for overseeing South Wales Police has defended how the force handled the violence in the Mayhill area of Swansea.
Around 60 police officers were deployed at the peak of the major disturbance on Thursday night, said Assistant Chief Constable Jenny Gilmer, but no arrests were made.
Following criticism of the police response, Labour Police and Crime Commissioner for South Wales Alun Michael has defended the force’s handling of the incident and praised the response.
He told the Western Mail he “didn’t have a magic wand” and can’t “give unrealistic promises that things won’t happen”.
We sat down with Mr Michael to discuss the force’s response.
■ Western Mail: What are your views on how the riot in Swansea was policed last night? Are you satisfied with how the force responded?
■ PCC Alun Michael: “Yes indeed because, although I don’t deal with operational issues, after it happened I had immediate contact with a number of people including the leader of the council Rob Stewart and Julie James, the local Senedd Member. I had a conversation with the chief superintendent Trudy Maycock very quickly after the whole incident kicked off.
“I think the thing that has to be appreciated is that an event like this can come out of the blue. It is not entirely a new phenomenon.
“We have had a number of incidents over the past few years not just in South Wales but elsewhere where violent incidents involving a lot of people have apparently come out of nowhere because they have been stimulated and organised via social media. Very often it is through encrypted means so that until things start kicking off police don’t know what is going to happen. An example is the rave in Banwen last year which was a rave organised in a way that wasn’t publicly visible until things started to happen.
“Last night things moved very quickly in terms of stuff emerging on social media. The police reacted very quickly in terms of pulling in public order trained police officers from across the force and dealt with a very difficult and challenging situation.
“None of what I have said underestimates the quite frightening nature of the incident that took place. I think the speed of response was good and so was the very quick, joined-up communication between the police and the local authority as well as the fact that an investigative team was put in place very quickly last night so that all the information that is available e on body body-worn worn cameras and the he quite shocking footage ge on social media could be e downloaded to South Wales Police.”
■ I don’t think k anyone would underestimate stimate how hard it is when n incidents spring up, but there is footage last night ght which shows police officers leaving the scenes of the he violence. When our reportorters arrived last night there was no visible police presence. What message do you think this sends to people living in that area? Can you understand why they feel abandoned?
■ “I can understand that but you have got to look at the whole picture. If there were moments during the events where the police presence appeared to people to be less than what was required I think that is something you better put to the operational officers.
“I think you have got to look at the whole picture and the general speed of response and the dealing with a very, very challenging situation. You had over 200 young people active on the streets. The level of the violence, the attacks on vehicles and so on was considerable. I think what we have to do is try and understand what was going on beforehand, bearing b in mind that the events even running up to this w were not visible prior to the event. That is wha what the investigative unit is now going to be respo responding to.”
■ What is your me message to the people committing comm this violence? Is there going to be any recou recourse to th them? All of these people burning cars, are they realistically going to face justice for the crimes that were committed?
■ “I think that South Wales Police are in the forefront of using technology to identify people through facial recognition from video footage and social media. I think that would be the message.
“I think like the riots in London, where I was part of the Home Affairs Select committee’s investigation into the London riots 12 years ago, it was obvious that people at the time feel that they are invincible, that nothing is going to happen and they will be invisible afterwards but that is not the case. That is the point of setting up the investigative unit straight away with commendable speed by the local commander.”
■ People in those communities are scared about what is going to happen tonight. You have been the PCC for almost a decade and have just been reelected. What are you personally doing to make sure that they will not go through this again tonight? What reassurances can you give people in that area and wider south Wales?
“I think the assurance I can give them is the quality of policing in South Wales. Even when something appears from nowhere they will mobilise resources not just locally, but from across the force.
“The immediacy of the action of the local commander to put police resources in the area following up on the event and the immediate work between the police and local authority which I saw take place last night to engage with the local community and looks to head off the threat from further events.
“There have been suggestions there will be another event over the weekend and the warning to anyone thinking of being involved in that is that they shouldn’t think they will be invisible. The event over the weekend is known about in advance and the police will be prepared for it and I have got very great confidence in South Wales Police’s capacity to deal with the known as well as responding to the unknown which is what happened last night.”
■ Obviously when things are unexpected it’s very hard to deal with them, but if you’re a person who has had their cars burned, their kids cowering upstairs and their windows smashed, can you give those people assurances that this isn’t going to happen again tonight or this weekend? Are people going to be safe this weekend?
■ “I haven’t got a magic wand. What I can be confident in is the response of South Wales Police in mobilising the resources available to the operational team will be the best they possibly can be. The quality of the response from South Wales Police on a whole range of measurements is one of the best in the country.
“It was significant, I think, that last night off-duty police officers were phoning in and offering to come and help. That is the nature of the police family in South Wales generally and Swansea.
“What I can’t do is give unrealistic promises that things won’t happen when clearly there is something going on under the surface which is now being investigated. There were triggers that led to the activity last night and there are clearly some people who think they can act with impunity and they need to learn that isn’t the case.”
■ Are you going to launch an inquiry into the incident?
“Before deciding if we need a formal inquiry we need to understand the events to make sure they can’t happen again and I think that depends on the initial inquiries. I spoke this morning to Assistant Chief Constable Jenny Gilmer, who is the gold commander for the incident, and the big questions will be whether the steps needed to make
sure this can’t happen again are for the police alone, for the police and local authority or are there drivers under the surface that weren’t visible prior to last night which we need to understand and to tackle?
“We are doing a great deal of work in Swansea and Neath Port Talbot in tackling the scourge of substance misuse. We are doing a great deal and I have invested more resources into tackling things like domestic violence and abuse. There are a whole series of challenges that we have to meet which are interrelated in ways that are not always obvious on the surface. I would say let’s get the outcome of the first investigation and the investigations by the police and then certainly I will be discussing it with the leader of the council and local Senedd Members.
“If there is a need to delve further because the police investigations don’t give us all the answers then yes, certainly an inquiry will happen.”
■ If that incident happened again would you want the force to do exactly as it did this time?
■ “The first thing is when an event happens one of the things that is done by the operational police team is asking what can we do that will stop this happening again.
“I will give you an example, when we had the horrific numbers turning up and ignoring social distancing on the steps of the Senedd on Good Friday we had conversations on the Saturday morning and by the Saturday afternoon there was fencing around the steps of the Senedd in order to stop that being repeated. That is one minor example but what I am saying is that we do have very good arrangements for learning from the unexpected. Those conversations will certainly be happening now regarding the planned event in Swansea over the weekend.”
■ What is your message to people living in the area?
■ “As far as the people concerned in those local communities I think all I can say is that something like this coming out of the blue is not the fault of the police. It is the fault of those individuals who organised it and took part in it.
“You can be confident that South Wales Police will learn the lessons from what has happened and put things in place to protect the public and avoid something like that happening again to the extent that it is possible to do so.”