Theresa May has told police chiefs in England and Wales they have her support to use tough tactics in riots and that they could get new curfew powers.The home secretary said officers had been criticised in the past for being "too tough" but had her backing if they acted "within reason and the law".
She said new guidelines would be issued to forces about public order policing.
Acting Met Commissioner Tim Godwin rejected claims officers had held back in London.
Giving evidence to the Commons home affairs committee, he gave the example of the borough commander in Sutton who had led a "baton charge of everyone he could get out of the police station up Sutton high street".
"I don't believe for one second that the men and women of the Met were timid, which is an accusation that's been levelled at us which I have refuted but more important than that the vast majority of the people that make up this city, the Londoners, refute that."
He also told MPs that suggestions that politicians and police had been "at loggerheads" were unhelpful and had been "overplayed".
Rioting which began in Tottenham, north London, last Saturday spread over the following days to different parts of the city as well as parts of Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool, Nottingham, Gloucester and Bristol.On Tuesday, Mrs May praised the bravery of those on the front line but said that she had been told that some officers had felt "because of criticism of police tactics in the past" police had felt "damned if they do and damned if they don't".
She told the audience, which included police chiefs: "As long as you act within reason and the law, I will never damn you if you do." She said public support was put at risk if tactics like rubber bullets were used - and police chiefs themselves had not wanted to use baton rounds and water cannon, instead relying on a surge of officers and "robust policing" alongside community support.
But she said "strong, enforceable powers" were needed to help police deal with anti-social behaviour, criminality, gangs and disorder.
She said dispersal orders - which allow police to move on groups of people from certain areas - had been used "to good effect" and were part of anti-social behaviour measures which were being reformed to make them more "effective and enforceable".
Police would get stronger powers to enforce gang injunctions and remove face masks, she said.
And ministers are considering new curfew powers - to allow "general curfews" to be imposed on a specific area in England and Wales, rather than being linked to specific individuals, and to allow them to be imposed on more youngsters aged under 16.
"It's clear to me that as long as we tolerate the kind of anti-social behaviour that takes place every day up and down the country, we will continue to see high levels of crime, a lack of respect for private property and a contempt for community life," she said."So we will make sure the police have the powers they need. But we also need to be clear that when they use them, and when they deliver the kind of robust policing that worked this week, they have the support of the politicians and the public.
BBC
