Police need to be better prepared to manage the risk online content poses to the public and prioritise intelligence around disorder, a review examining the force’s response to the summer 2024 riots has found.
Public disorder in the UK was fuelled by a string of online fake claims which emerged after three young girls were murdered at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in the north-western town of Southport in July 2024.
Some online posts falsely alleged that the attacker was a Muslim migrant who had recently arrived in the UK. Claims gained traction and rioters turned to target housing for asylum-seekers, mosques, libraries, as well as community centres, in what became Britain’s worst street violence since the 2011 riots.
The review published on Wednesday found that the UK’s police forces are largely under-resourced and ill-equipped to effectively respond to the risk posed by online content.
The report, which is the second to examine the police’s response to last summer’s riots, found that forces do not sufficiently prioritise intelligence on disorder.
The UK’s Chief Inspector of Constabulary Andy Cooke said that this failing is part of the reason that police forces didn’t react swiftly to changes in public sentiments which developed rapidly after the Southport attack occurred.
Cooke urged police forces to react to fake claims and narratives online swiftly “with an accurate counter-narrative” which should be “innovative in its approach and wide-reaching in terms of its audience.”
The review concluded that police forces in the UK needed to improve their communications online and work to fill information voids, as well as challenge false narratives and fake news.
The report also found that “a more cohesive intelligence network that informs and supports the police response to simmering tension and unrest” needs to be implemented.
The police inspectorate determined there was no conclusive evidence to suggest the riots were “deliberately premeditated and co-ordinated by any specific group or network.”
Instead, the violence was predominantly conducted by “disaffected individuals, influencers or groups that incited people to act violently and take part in disorder, rather than criminal factions or extremists.”
The Southport attacker, Axel Rudakubana, killed three young girls, but also wounded eight other children, as well as two adults.
Aged 17 years old at the time of the attack, he was handed a sentence of a minimum 52 years in prison in January.
