Police Chiefs Dismiss ‘Two-Tier Policing’ Allegations as ‘Nonsense’

A senior police official has dismissed allegations of “two-tier policing” as “nonsense,” asserting that his force acted “entirely fair” in its response to the summer disturbances. Mark Webster, the chief constable for Cleveland Police, informed Members of Parliament that “people don’t want to listen to the facts” when questioned about the controversy, which arose from claims that certain individuals received preferential treatment from law enforcement due to their background. Widespread violent unrest affected various regions of England during July and August, following the Southport stabbings and exacerbated by misinformation circulating on social media platforms. Addressing the Home Affairs Select Committee, Mr. Webster characterized the “narrative” surrounding two-tier policing as “really unhelpful,” stating, “I go so far as to say sometimes it’s nonsense, and it does tend to undermine.” He further stated: “Without fear or favour if you were involved in criminality, you were arrested, or you will be arrested.” He maintained that his police force operated with “very fair” practices, emphasizing that arrests were made only when “clear evidence” indicated suspicion of violent disorder or other offenses. Mr. Webster informed the committee that individuals “don’t necessarily want to listen to the facts, and if it doesn’t conform with the view that you want to put across and you want to accuse police of two-tier policing, it does have a really negative effect on my officers.” Earlier during the proceedings, Mr. Webster commented that police forces lack the “capability to police the entirety of social media,” adding, “Clearly these entities are far, far bigger than anything policing has got to offer.” When questioned about the underlying causes of the riots, Mr. Webster identified “common factors” present in the affected areas, stating: “Many of them are challenged communities. The social fabric is quite difficult across many of them and I think that probably makes them fairly fertile to be either whipped up or for violence, maybe out of just wanting criminality, boredom, any number of different issues.” He provided instances of individuals who had been sentenced, describing them as having “been out, they’d had too much to drink, they’d walk past and thought, why not?” He further remarked, “That’s not a representative sample, but I think much of that desperation, this lack of hope, lack of state, nothing to lose, I think much of that certainly impacted on the riots and the disorder that took place in Cleveland.” Cleveland Police incurred expenses exceeding £660,000 in their efforts to identify and apprehend individuals involved in the disturbances in Middlesbrough and Hartlepool, located on Teesside. Chris Noble, the chief constable of Staffordshire Police, informed MPs that it did not “make any sense for policing at all to show favouritism whenever we’re built on respect for the rule of the law.” He also commented, “If two-tier policing is bringing people swiftly to justice, I’m not quite sure many people would argue with that.” He acknowledged that the accusations were “not nice to hear, but we’ve got relatively thick skin.” Judi Heaton, the chief constable of Humberside Police, conveyed to the committee the critical importance of a prompt and effective justice system to “nip this [the riots] in the bud,” stating: “We couldn’t have a situation where, nationally, we were facing disorder like this, day in, day out, week in, week out.” She concluded, “So actually, swift justice happening and being seen to happen was really important.” Ms. Heaton mentioned that her force initially adopted a “low-key approach” to managing the disorder but encountered an unprecedented level of violence and looting in Hull, stating they had “never seen anything like it.” Jake Richards MP informed Ms. Heaton that he was aware of officers having “raised a number of issues,” specifically mentioning “members of the Chief Officer Group not being in the region in the days leading to and during the riots.” In reply, the chief constable asserted that they “were around” and had worked “continuously.” Ms. Heaton additionally stated to the committee that she was “not aware” of any injured officers being transported to the hospital in taxis or private vehicles following the disturbances. Follow BBC Tees on X, Facebook, Nextdoor and Instagram, external. Send your story ideas to northeastandcumbria@bbc.co.uk.Copyright 2024 BBC. All rights reserved. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Read about our approach to external linking.