Claims of Airwave ‘breakdown’ during riots unfounded, insists CWU
7th December 2011
Allegations that the police response to the August
riots was hampered by failures in the secure emergency
services' communications network provided by Airwave have been
comprehensively dismissed by the CWU.
The claim, made in press reports over the weekend, was based on comments attributed to the Police Federation which suggested that thousands of police officers were forced to use their own mobile phones following a breakdown in the Airwave service - arguing that this was one of the main reasons why police were forced onto the back foot, constantly playing 'catch-up' with the rioters.
Suggestions that the Airwave communications network was at fault
have surprised and incensed CWU members who maintain, monitor and
operate the world-beating system - dealing directly with the
emergency services.
Their astonishment at the attack on the efficacy of the secure
communications network is compounded by the fact that the National
Policing Improvement Agency has itself stated that the Airwave
network 'coped very well' with communicating with 16,000
police officers.
CWU deputy general secretary Andy Kerr
points out that the direct involvement of CWU members at the sharp
end of providing the service means they would have been amongst the
first to know had any service failure occurred.
"The fact is that no problems were reported by our members at
all," said Andy. "Indeed our members are absolutely
adamant that the system worked extremely well at a critically busy
time. As such, the idea being put about that they system failed is
quite demonstrably wrong - especially taken in conjunction with the
positive assessment made by the National Policing Improvement
Agency."
Lead CWU rep at Airwave Solutions, Chris Mason,
explained: "The reality of the situation on the weekend of
riots was one of outstanding performance by the Airwave network,
and our members. At the start of the riots our members on shift
were managing the network, but calls went out to our members who
were off duty to come into work in case things escalated.
"Our members worked with the Police to ensure the
requirements of all the emergency services was met and, from what I
have been told, all sites were up and running, and any requests
from the emergency services were managed very quickly.
"Our members monitored the riots from all available media to
pre-empt any emergency forces requests, which ensured the network
was working to an optimum."
