Arrests total 58 across West Yorkshire following last weeks disorder

16 August 2011

A total of 58 people have now been arrested across West Yorkshire following last weeks street disorders and misuse of social networking.

In Leeds, 22 people have been arrested, with 33 people arrested in Kirklees. Enquiries are ongoing to trace other suspects.

In Wakefield, three people have been arrested and charged with offences relating to inciting disorder via social networking sites.

 

Assistant Chief Constable Jawaid Akhtar:

Our main concern last week was to provide an effective response to what happened in West Yorkshire.

In Leeds, the shooting of a man, which subsequently proved fatal, followed by sporadic incidents of disorder in Leeds and Huddersfield, heightened concerns among the community.

It was vital to provide the support and reassurance our communities needed and to have the necessary teams available to thoroughly investigate what happened, bring those responsible to justice and prevent further disorder.

The extremely positive and supportive feedback we have had from people, along with the arrest and charging of a number of individuals, show that was the right approach.

In order to provide this effective operational response we had to mobilise across the Force and also provide mutual aid to other Forces elsewhere who were experiencing issues of their own.

It inevitably meant an increase in officer numbers in parts of the Force, many of these being drawn from neighbouring Divisions and for example our Training School, but we also had to ask officers and staff to work longer hours in some cases.

Policing is unpredictable meaning that work patterns have to be rescheduled, often at short notice and we really appreciate the support we’ve had from the Police Federation, Unison and GMB in communicating the message to their staff.

Officers and staff have shown real commitment in sacrificing their own personal plans to ensure we had a professional and appropriate response which met the community needs.

It was, without doubt, a large scale operation and the cost will be significant.

 

Further video of people the Police are seeking in connection with disorder incidents has been released today:

 

 

 

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