26 November 2024

Community's togetherness in de-escalating serious disorder praised by Mayor

The togetherness of a community in helping to de-escalate serious disorder in part of Leeds earlier this year has been praised by the Mayor of West Yorkshire.

Actions of local leaders and members of the public to ease tensions in Harehills were highlighted at a meeting last week to look back on the incident.

Views from people living in the area had been sought by Tracy Brabin and her Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime, Alison Lowe.

These reflections were raised with West Yorkshire Police’s Chief Constable John Robins at a Community Outcomes Meeting on Tuesday 26 November.

Mayor of West Yorkshire, Tracy Brabin said:

"I'm incredibly grateful to everyone in Harehills who stepped up and helped to calm the situation, because without their interventions the outcome could have been very different.

"I'd also like to thank both officers for their response on the night to what was an extremely challenging situation and the Chief Constable and his team for taking on board the feedback we raised with them on behalf of the community.

"It's vital that we do all we can to highlight issues when they are brought to us and listen to the public as part of our work to make West Yorkshire a safer, fairer place."

The meeting heard that members of the public were satisfied with the police response on the night, particularly with the decision to temporarily withdraw officers to a safe distance in order to give community leaders the opportunity to talk to people in the crowds and encourage them to return home.

Engagement work in the community over the previous 18 months, especially through the 'CommUnity Harehills' project, had established strong working relationships which were heavily relied upon during the serious disorder itself and in the days and weeks following the incident.

Some Harehills communities felt unfairly targeted on social media and the Deputy Mayor suggested changes may be required to the Online Safety Act to combat such racism and discrimination.

The Mayor and Deputy Mayor passed on difficulties experienced by some of those arrested as a result of the terms of their bail conditions and they received assurances that these concerns had been listened to and acted upon at the time while improvements to processes could be looked at for the future.

There were also questions about West Yorkshire Police's communications strategy during and after the serious disorder, its work to engage young people, how it is ensuring individual communities do not feel overpoliced and under protected, and ongoing improvements to recruiting so the force better reflects the communities it serves.

Chief Constable John Robins QPM DL said:

“I would like to reiterate my gratitude to those community members who assisted frontline police officers on the night and who continue to work with us in Harehills.

"This is testament to the years of work that we have done alongside the people of Harehills to substantially reduce crime and build trust and confidence. Local neighbourhood officers and staff will continue this essential work in the area.

“We promised that no stone would be left unturned to identify those involved in July’s disorder and our investigation remains underway. This has led to 43 people being arrested so far, with eight charged and four people imprisoned, and there are many more people yet to be arrested.”

The full meeting can be watched back online and the meeting papers including reports are available on the Combined Authority's website.