After the riots of Saturday to Tuesday night, come more arrests by police; and a shift in attention to the internet.
Pictured: a boarded-up shop in the centre of Wolverhampton on Thursday morning, August 11. Rain and what at least one police force called โrobust policingโ meant few or fewer riots in England on Wednesday night, August 10 to 11, compared with the previous four nights. Leicestershire was one โrobustโ force. Section 60 powers were invoked in the city centre between 6pm on Wednesday and 6am on Thursday. These give officers the power to search people and request them to move face coverings.
Earlier in the afternoon officers handed out property marking packs to shopkeepers in the city, enabling them to mark their property. SmartWater is a liquid containing a code which can be read under ultraviolet light and assists in indentifying stolen property and those that took it.
Detectives in the city have been assigned to review evidence including any CCTV in relation to the disorder on Tuesday evening.
City centre commander, Chief Superintendent Rob Nixon said: โI would like to praise the people of Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland for the way they have conducted themselves tonight.
โWe would like to thank the community for their support throughout the evening and we would urge them to continue to contact us with any rumours they hear about potential disturbances.
โThe assistance we received from members of the various communities of Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland in mediating with groups from their particular areas has been invaluable. I would like to thank everyone that joined us in this.
โWe will continue to monitor the situation and carry out high visibility patrols across the city and county.
โWe are keen to stress that it is business as usual in the city. Please come into the city and enjoy the facilities it has to offer. Please do not let the mindless actions of a very few affect your enjoyment.โ
Meanwhile other forces were using CCTV to detect offenders. For example a man has been arrested on suspicion of arson after Miss Selfridges in Manchester city centre was set alight.
The shop on Market Street was set alight during violence and disorder in the city on Tuesday night.
An 18-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of arson in Manchester at 2pm on Wednesday, August 10.
Assistant Chief Constable Garry Shewan said: "This is a prime example of how quickly we are working. Only 18 hours after the incident, we have turned around the CCTV and identified someone we want to speak to in connection with this offence.
"We will work just as quickly through all the hundreds of hours of material at our disposal to ensure the right people end up in front of the courts and face justice for their actions."
Also in Greater Manchester Police (GMP) force area, officers from Salford division arrested three people on suspicion of theft from Salford Precinct.
On Wednesday, August 10 officers executed a warrant at Doveridge Gardens, Salford, and arrested two men, aged 22 and 27, and a 23-year-old woman.
Labelled items from Cash Converters, which had been looted the previous evening, were found at the address.
Detective Chief Inspector Bill McGreavy said: "We have acted on intelligence coming in from the community and have taken immediate action. We will continue to identify those involved in the violence and looting in Salford and make sure they are brought to justice."
And in Lancashire, two men have been charged after posting messages encouraging disorder on the website Facebook.
Christopher Schofield, 25, of Exkroyd Close, Nelson and Warren Calvert, 19, of Kingsway, Heysham have been charged with intentionally encouraging or assisting in the commission of an either way offence believing it would be committed.
They have both been bailed. Schofield will appear before Burnley Magistrates Court on August 15 and Calvert will appear before Lancaster Magistrates on August 25. A third man, aged 21 from Blackpool was also arrested last night on suspicion of encouraging or assisting in the commission of an either way offence believing it would be committed but was released no further action.
Assistant Chief Constable Peter White from Lancashire Police said that fortunately Lancashire had had no major incidents โ some isolated criminal damage may have been โusual for this time of yearโ.
He added: โWe have seen lots of speculation across the social media about things allegedly happening in Lancashire and we would urge people not to get caught up in this kind of unhelpful rumour mongering. These actions are causing unnecessary concern for people living in Lancashire and in the worst case scenario, may encourage unrest in our county.
"Social media sites are routinely monitored by the Constabulary and anyone found to be inciting violence or disorder in this way will be dealt with by police.โ
Similarly, in another area with little or no rioting, Hampshire, which has sent police officers to London during the riots, Chief Superintendent Karen Manners said: โWeโre using social networking sites to help reassure people who are understandably concerned about how the events in London may impact our communities.
โWeโre aware that such sites and networks are also being used to encourage copycat riots and weโve reason to believe that some of these threats are being made by teenagers who don’t quite realise the implications of their words.
โIf you are publishing messages encouraging violence, you need to know you can expect a visit from the police.โ For example, you can follow the Hampshire Constabulary Facebook page and on Twitter @HantsPolice.
An 18-year-old from Southampton was arrested by police on Tuesday evening on suspicion of attempting to incite violence through use of a page on the social networking site, Facebook. He was taken into custody, held overnight, and released without charge on Wednesday afternoon, August 10, after accounting for his actions. Superintendent Steve France-Sergeant, from Southampton police, said the teenager โnow fully understands that his promotion of a web page devoted to rioting in Southampton was not only inappropriate but caused real concerns to vulnerable people and businesses within the city.โ
Police have quoted from the youthโs letter of apology: "My acts on Facebook were stupid and immature, even though I never wanted to start a riot, by creating a page about one I could have incited one. So for that Iโm sorry. I know the rioting is a big fear everywhere and didnโt think about the negative side of my poor idea and how people felt. Hopefully the actions taken will make people think twice about trashing their own city and following a bad example." Mandela Way, in Southampton, has seen what police described as a small series of bin fires and some vehicles set alight. Hampshire Police, too have been providing a regular stream of updates and information on their Twitter site , where they seek to counter rumour and speculation.
And the Avon and Somerset force spoke of a โcrusade to hunt down those involved in Monday’s criminalityโ in Bristol. Deputy Chief Constable Rob Beckley spoke of โjust a few isolated incidentsโ, similar to any Wednesday night. He said: "From the moment we experienced our first incidents of disorder, we pledged that we would do everything within our power to maintain normality for the law-abiding people who live in, work in or visit Bristol.??
"Over the past couple of days, we have all witnessed through the media some horrific scenes from other parts of the country, not least of which the three fatalities in Birmingham.??We are very fortunate in that we have not experienced anything to that level.โ
And in Kent, police reported on Wednesday that most calls to the force control room on Tuesday night were from people concerned about small groups of young people congregating. Some calls reported content on social network sites and other calls about suspicious people. Around 43 per cent of the calls contained incorrect information about the scale and nature of the incident, Kent Police said. They gave the example of a call saying 40 to 50 youths had left a train at Chatham railway station and were heading for the town, when rail staff confirmed no large groups had been on the train and none could be located in the area.
Likewise, Sussex Police’s call handling centre reported a high volume of calls from well-meaning people reporting rumours in relation to potential unrest in the county.??The majority of these rumours, generally generated through social networking sites, proved to be false and have been third, or even fourth, hand information. The Sussex force noted a local newspaper’s online report that a car was ‘torched’ near the new Amex stadium in Brighton. A revised report correctly pointed out that it was an electrical fault.
And similarly in South Yorkshire, police said rumours suggesting disorder in South Yorkshire were not true, were unhelpful and were causing unecessary fear.
In Surrey, as elsewhere, though police reported no significant disorder, some chain stores in the county chose to shut early in line with guidance from their head offices.
Police advised people not to intervene if they saw crime. Their advice:
– Park your car in well-lit areas and in your garage if you have one.
– Avoid crowds and if you see a confrontation, walk away and report it to police.
– Think about property which could be used to start a fire – keep rubbish bins out of sight and only put them out on rubbish collection day.
– Make sure there’s nothing lying around outside your house that could be used to damage your or someone else’s property, or harm someone.
