William Lyle is a detective superintendent from the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) who’ll be speaking at the inaugural Global Security Summit on the subject of last year’s rioting in the Capital.
Lyle is the senior investigating officer on Operation Withern, the MPS’ law enforcement project energised to investigate the serious disorder and violence that occurred in August 2011 and, ultimately, bring all of those responsible to justice.
Operation Withern is an MPS-wide effort led by officers from the Specialist Crime Directorate working together with detectives, uniformed officers and police staff from across the MPS.
While the Specialist Crime Directorate retains responsibility for some major incidents seen during the disorder, local Borough police have been focused on pursuing those responsible for the rioting, looting and anti-social behaviour seen in their own area.
To this day, Operation Withern continues to support the arrest of suspects. Indeed, officers from the MPS have now arrested over 4,600 individuals in connection with the violence, disorder and looting that occurred.
Timeline of what happened
The first night of rioting took place on 7 August 2011 after a protest in Tottenham, following the death of Mark Duggan, a local man from the area who was shot dead on 4 August last year.
The following days saw similar scenes in other parts of London with the worst violence taking place in Hackney, Brixton, Chingford, Peckham, Enfield, Battersea, Croydon, Ealing and East Ham and Oxford Circus.
From 8-10 August, other cities in England including Birmingham, Bristol, Liverpool, and Manchester (along with several towns) witnessed what was described by the mainstream media as ‘copycat violence’.
The riots were characterised by rampant looting and arson attacks of unprecedented levels.
Reviewing the challenges faced by the police
Between noon and 12.30 pm on Day One of the inaugural Global Security Summit at London’s Olympia, DS Lyle will be reviewing the challenges faced by the MPS during the riots and the lessons learned – notably in relation to CCTV.
“Over 4,000 crimes were committed in London during the disorder,” explained Lyle. “600-plus officers have been involved with Operation Withern and, in the first few weeks of the investigation alone, we recovered 177,000 hours of CCTV footage.”
Lyle stated that UK towns and cities in general have invested a good deal of money in surveillance, but suggested that perhaps not enough attention has been paid to securing and preserving the evidence.
“As part of Operation Withern we’ve set up 23 specialist teams of officers throughout London to help do just that, and put vital evidence before the courts,” added Lyle.
It’s a tactic that’s obviously working when you learn that the conviction rate to date for Operation Withern is a mightily impressive 82%.
What type of criminal has been unearthed?
According to Lyle, in the early part of the rioting and looting plenty of individuals with no previous criminal convictions were “swept up” in what was happening.
“Then we started to see lots of organised criminals taking part,” he continued. “We’ve had to complete back-tracking exercises on the CCTV footage to map their movements and help bring about convictions for the guilty.”
Why has the conviction rate been so high?
“Between 30 and 40 specialist prosecutors were brought on board by the Crown Prosecution Service at a very early stage,” said Lyle. “They worked very closely with us, and that’s why we’ve managed to successfully bring to justice those who have committed offences.”
As the detailed and thorough investigation progresses as part of Operation Withern, the MPS is continually issuing photographs of individuals who were in the vicinity of the disorder and who may be able to help officers with their enquiries.
These images are available to view on the MPS website www.met.police.uk/disordersuspects so that members of the public can help the police identify those who committed violent and criminal acts on London’s streets.
Anyone who recognises individuals in the photographs, or has any information about the disorder they would like to share, is urged to contact the MPS Investigations Team on 020 8345 4142.
Alternatively, crime and information can be reported anonymously to Crimestoppers on (telephone) 0800 555 111.
William Lyle is a detective superintendent with the Metropolitan Police Service and the senior investigating officer on Operation Withern
Further information on the Global Security Summit
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