Demonstrations by Just Stop Oil and pro-Palestine protesters have distracted the Metropolitan Police from protecting communities, the force’s chief has claimed.
Sir Mark Rowley said that officers deployed to large demonstrations could have been used to investigate “crime, robberies, burglaries and chasing down wanted offenders”.
A series of groups have held frequent protests and counter-protests since October last year, including environmental campaigns by Just Stop Oil and Extinction Rebellion and marches organised by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) calling for immediate ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas conflict.
Many protests also developed into rioting and disorder after three young girls were killed in an attack in the Merseyside town of Southport on July 29.
Sir Mark said that Israel-Gaza protests, Just Stop Oil and Notting Hill Carnival had taken nearly 70,000 shifts – the equivalent of half a million officer hours.
He told an event organised by the Police Foundation: “At the moment, if you want to protest on the same issue with 10,000 friends every day of the week, you can.”
He also claimed that policing the protests had “affected our ability to protect communities”.
“About 70,000 shifts a year — that’s a massive amount of capability. Those officers would have been patrolling boroughs and communities across London,” Sir Mark said.
“They would have been responding to calls and working with local teams, they would have been investigating crime, robberies, and burglaries and chasing down wanted offenders, so a number of that scale has a massive effect.”
Sir Mark also suggested that parliament could change laws on protest to make it easier for police, but stressed that “the last person to answer that should be (the police)”.
“It’s interesting, the parliament in Northern Ireland created a different regime for protest which didn’t involve police officers as a decision maker and involves the Parades Commission,” he said.
“So there are different ways of doing it. If parliament … wanted a different solution that’s possible.”
Between last October and June the Palestine-related protests in London cost the Metropolitan Police £42.9million, according to a report by Policy Exchange.
Matt Twist, who is responsible for protest and public order policing across London, said earlier this month that the force “didn’t get everything right” and could have made arrests sooner when policing recent large-sale protests.
A spokesperson for Just Stop Oil told The Times: “If the Met were to focus their attention on prosecuting the fossil fuel executives and politicians who are putting all of our lives at risk by continuing oil and gas production during the hottest year in history, the actions of Just Stop Oil would no longer be necessary.”
Ben Jamal, director of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, told the newspaper: “The UK shields Israel from international legal accountability, providing diplomatic, economic and military support. That is why the Palestine solidarity movement continues to march for freedom, justice and equality for Palestinians.
“That is a fundamental, vital democratic right that cannot be measured or rationed by cost. Indeed, it is part of the police’s role to uphold our democratic rights, not limit them.”
