UK riots: Police demand water cannon and one other weapon to fight far-right
Riot police should be able to use rubber bullets and water cannons to ward off violent disorder, top industry officials demand.
Riot police should have access to water cannons and rubber bullets to protect them during violent disorder, industry officials have said.
Brian Booth, acting national deputy chairman of the Police Federation of England and Wales, which represents 130,000 rank-and-file officers, said he was "sick to his hind teeth" at seeing public order officers being treated like "brick magnets".
At least 156 police officers have been injured so far in the unrest with 71 being taken to hospital.
This is the latest known figure of officer injuries from around half of the 43 forces in England and Wales, according to police sources. The total number of officers injured across all forces is not yet known.
Mr Booth said: "We would like to see every technology available to officers so they are not just standing in line behind shields, being brick magnets.
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"We want water cannon, CS canisters and attenuated energy projectiles (AEPs) [known colloquially as rubber bullets] to be considered for when we get into highly critical incidents and need proper dispersal equipment."
Water cannons, which are crowd-control vehicles that can project high-velocity streams of water over several metres, are not used in public order policing. Police sources said there were no plans to introduce them.
Greg Smith MP said: “Police need all the resources they need to stop this violence and rioting. Water cannons work. If they need them, they should have them.”
While rubber bullets have not been fired in the UK since the 1970s, they are used extensively by police forces across the world.
It costs £1,000 a year to train an officer to be allowed to use rubber bullets, which cost £25 a round
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Kevin Moore, the former Detective Chief Superintendent of Sussex Police CID, insisted that police must act with force to eradicate chaos on the nation’s streets.
He said: “If you look at the tactics used by European police forces they don't mess around.
“It's a hot summer at the moment - they'd be wheeling out the old water cannon and sorting it all out.
“I think that the public and the government need to decide what sort of police force they want - whether they want one that's going to enforce the law and maintain the King's peace, or whether they want this quasi police service where we are all very nice to everyone but that is totally and utterly ineffective.”
A Home Office spokesman said: “The police have our full backing in taking the strongest possible action against this unacceptable violence.”
