The risk of military horses bolting in panic during the coronation of King Charles was one of the reasons that the Met had a “lower” threshold for arrests, a senior officer said on Wednesday as she revealed that the force is ready to apologise to anyone wrongly detained.
Assistant Commissioner Louisa Rolfe said the safety of the large numbers of members of the public and dignitaries attending the event and intelligence of plans to cause serious disruption meant that officers had to act to prevent potential danger.
She added that military horses taking part were not trained to cope in the same way as police horses and that officers had intelligence of paint being thrown, or rape alarms or other devices being used to scare the animals during the coronation procession, creating a further risk to safety.
But she said that the force, which has come under fire for arresting protesters from the anti-monarchy group Republic and women from the Night Stars safety scheme, would be ready to say sorry if its review of the event showed that any had been arrested unjustifiably.
“We want to understand the detail of what happened and those individual arrests and the circumstances surrounding them will be fully explored in our debrief process,” she told the London Assembly’s Police and Crime Committee.
“If we’ve got things wrong, we will apologise to individuals affected and we’ll work through that.
“But also we trust our officers to make decisions on the ground often with the circumstances they face and on the basis of information and intelligence available to them.
“They will make inquiries to validate the information they hold but also they will sometimes need to make very fast time decisions to ensure that they’re carrying out their duties to ensure the safety and security of an event.”
The Met has previously told MPs that the intelligence it received about threatened disruption to the coronation was so serious that the Home Secretary Suella Braverman was briefed the night before and Ms Rolfe said that officers had been required “to respond swiftly to a developing intelligence picture” and that “it may not always be feasible or practical to ensure evidence before an arrest is made.”
Six members of anti-monarchy organisation Republic were arrested on suspicion of going equipped to lock-on - something some protesters do to make them more difficult to move from sites - because they had luggage straps to secure placards in their lorry.
Three volunteers for women’s safety scheme Night Stars were also arrested in possession of rape alarms, which they carry to give out as part of anti-spiking kits.
All were later released with no further action.
Deputy Assistant Commissioner Ade Adelekan said, however, that investigations were still being conducted into some of those arrested during the coronation and that officers had been “deeply concerned” for the safety of the public lining the procession route.
Mr Adelekan said the fact that protesters managed to get onto the procession route for the late Queen’s Platinum Jubilee parade had added to concerns around the coronation.
