Written evidence submitted by Police Service Scotland (SDR0003)

Due to the escalation, a Gold Command structure was established in Scotland, chaired by Assistant Chief Constable Gary Ritchie. We also established a dedicated and resourced Community Reassurance Cell (CRC) to handle direct community correspondence and engagement, address concerns, and facilitate appropriate communication with community stakeholders and partners, including the Scottish Government. Given the fast-moving nature of these events, we prioritised managing online information, which had the potential to amplify fears and tensions, not just within minority communities but across wider Scottish society.  The CRC also reviewed every hate crime reported nationally on a daily basis to ensure a Hate Crime Advisor could provide support and guidance where needed and any patterns if trends were quickly identified.

All operational divisions provided daily updates on any particular issue, or tensions, in their areas and were tasked to increase visible patrols with proactive local engagements, focussing on relevant places of worship and locations housing asylum seekers / refugees.  Over 1200 additional patrols were undertaken during the 8 day period with over 200 in person visits to key community locations such as places of worship.

As part of our efforts, a rapid community engagement meeting was organised with key community groups on Wednesday, 07 August. Senior police officers attended to provide a direct dialogue opportunity with many directly affected community representatives, obtaining better understanding of the similar concerns of safety and online misinformation. A variety of minority groups were represented, along with Interfaith Scotland and the Scottish Refugee Council.  The Policing Together team have since met with the Muslim Council of Scotland and also with the Lebanese / Arab Shia Muslim community.  The Chief Inspector from Policing Together also supported Black & Ethnic Minority Infrastructure Scotland (BEMIS) with a national meeting, with Scottish Government Ministers and faith and community leaders, to provide re-assurances around the policing response here in Scotland.  This engagement has continued since the disorder abated to ensure we maintain the relationships for any future tensions.

On several occasions public messages were delivered by senior police officers to assist with managing the wider community concerns, tailored as appropriate, reported in media / social media. In our messaging we also encouraged everyone to be responsible in their use of social media and not share speculation or inaccurate information.

School and campus / liaison officers were directly briefed to be mindful of their important role in schools and local communities and were required to reassure teachers, pupils, parents, or guardians who may seek information and reassurance as children and young people returned following school holidays.

A fully staffed CRC was in place ahead of the event on 07 of September to ensure our communications and engagement was properly co-ordinated and all local divisions fed into this throughout the week before to allow us to monitor and assess any rises in tensions for the protests and counter protest in Glasgow.

Internal communications were sent via the force intranet to all and any officers or staff impacted by the ongoing violence with messages of reassurance and support and reminders of the support networks in place for their welfare.

All matters were recorded on a community impact assessment to not only assess the impact of the disorder but the impact of the policing response on communities.

From an operational perspective, Police Scotland implemented a proportionate and necessary Policing operation to ensure operational readiness in the event violence and disorder occurred in Scotland.

Whilst information and intelligence was received by Police Scotland to suggest there was planned protest and disorder, this was very limited and amounted to small gatherings at only 3 different locations. Most of the information received in relation to planned protest and disorder in Scotland was assessed to be false and misleading reporting on social media.

There was a national demonstration held in Glasgow on 07 September 2024 which was organised by ‘Pro-UK’. This resulted in a large counter-protest led by ‘Stand Up to Racism’, ‘Pro-Migration’ and Pro-Palestine groups.  Police Scotland put in place a robust, but proportionate policing operation to ensure public safety, minimise the risk of disorder and violence and facilitate the right to peaceful protest. This event was largely peaceful with only minor disorder, with no violence or escalation.

There was no violent disorder in Scotland and beyond the demonstration on 07 September 2024, there was very limited protest activity or other demonstrations and those that did take place were deemed to be peaceful in nature.

Police Scotland was able to swiftly and effectively put in place appropriate resources in the event disorder or violence did occur in Scotland, however this did have an impact on the welfare of Police Officers in terms of disruption to officer’s rest time.  The policing of local communities was maintained through the re-deployment of resources across the service; this however did result in financial implications for the service.

Whilst a mutual aid request was received to support forces in England, this request was cancelled prior to Police Scotland resources being deployed.  Police Scotland did deploy resources under mutual aid arrangements to support the Police Service of Northern Ireland.

It is assessed by Police Scotland that the sharing of information and intelligence at a UK level was extremely effective, with existing channels of communication being able to facilitate.

Nov 2024