- By Adriana Elgueta
- BBC News
Sir Mark Rowley answered questions about the impact of the Israel-Gaza protests as well as hate crimes in London
Around 3,500 community police officers have been redeployed to central London protests in the past three weeks, the Met commissioner has said.
Sir Mark Rowley told the London Assembly he was “deeply concerned” about the impact on community policing.
He added that if the protests were to continue, the Met would have to rethink its resources going forward.
The commissioner also believed the force had been balanced in its approach to investigating hate crime.
Conservative member Susan Hall asked the commissioner about the impact of recent protests.
Since the war between Hamas-controlled Gaza and Israel broke out on 7 October, thousands supporting both sides have taken to the streets to show their solidarity, creating tensions between the communities.
On the weekend of 14 October, Sir Mark said 1,000 community officers were redeployed as the first two Israel-Gaza protests took place in central London.
The following weekend (21 October) saw an increase, with 1,500 redeployed and last weekend (28 October) 2,000 were redeployed.
He said: “I am deeply concerned about the effect this has on local policing and the balance of that effort across London.
“Clearly we can’t let these protests get out of hand but it is creating a significant stretch.”
He explained that he anticipated that if these protests continued as a “sustained pattern” it would mean the force would have to change their approach to resources to make it sustainable.
It comes as further pro-Palestine protests are planned for Remembrance weekend, including a “significant demonstration” on 11 November in central London.
The Met said in a statement: “Officers will be deployed across London on 11 and 12 November as part of a significant policing and security operation.”
Sir Mark said the National and International Capital City (NICC) grant from the Home Office was supposed to fund the specific challenges of policing the capital but it was “well over £150m underfunded”.
“It’s that sort of shortage in capacity which plays into that stretch and means that we’re hitting local policing harder than I would like while we deal with protests,” he added.
The Home Office has been approached for comment.
As to whether policing had been equally proportionate in investigating anti-Semitic and anti-Muslim-related hate crimes, Sir Mark said that he believed it was well balanced.
There have been around 60 arrests at the protests and 100 elsewhere related to the crimes.
He explained: “There’s a lot of tension between communities and we can see the risk of terrorists and extremists in the UK getting energised, which challenges our counter terrorism team.”
Hate crimes against the Jewish community since the outbreak of the Israel-Gaza war were up 13 or 14 times, and up three or four times for hate crimes against the Muslim community, compared to the same time last year, according to the commissioner.
Sir Mark said that placing posters was “perfectly lawful”.
However, in the Edgware case they were told that they were placed on the shutters of a shop where a pro-Palestinian supporter worked which were private premises.
The previous week, pro-Palestinian flags placed on a Jewish war memorial were removed by an officer, he added.
“We’re taking pragmatic judgements which are completely symmetrical to deflate tension.”
William Turner is a seasoned U.K. correspondent with a deep understanding of domestic affairs. With a passion for British politics and culture, he provides insightful analysis and comprehensive coverage of events within the United Kingdom.
