27 May 2016 London Riots: August 2011 Jason Killens Deputy Director of Operations
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withdrawn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withdrawn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• Solo responders (FRU, MRU, CRU) withdrawn on staff safety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
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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
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The international dimension
• Reported around the World
• Reputational issues for UK Plc
• Olympic and Paralympic Games
• UK trade and investment