A former New York and Los Angeles police chief will advise the British government on tackling the street gangs blamed for the violence that raged nationwide this week.
Bill Bratton, who had private talks with British Prime Minister David Cameron on Friday, said there are lessons from the United States that were relevant to the situation in England.
Large numbers of police will be on the streets over the weekend following widespread rioting and looting in London and other cities, including Birmingham and Manchester at the start of the week. Five deaths are believed to be linked to the unrest.
Police have arrested more than 2,100 people around the country, many of whom have already appeared before magistrates. Hearings are being held round-the-clock in some courts to deal with the large numbers charged.
The violence first broke out in north London's Tottenham neighborhood a week ago after a protest over the death of a local man, Mark Duggan. He was shot after a police unit that deals with gun crime stopped a cab carrying the 29-year-old father of four.
Riots and looting spread across London and other cities, at a huge cost to local businesses and communities.
London's Metropolitan Police said Saturday they had charged a man with handling stolen goods after recovering electrical products worth £40,000 ($65,000) in Tottenham.
Street gangs are "at the heart of all the violence," Cameron told an emergency Parliament session Thursday, citing evidence of their ties to police attacks and looting.
Cameron said he had asked senior government ministers to work "on a cross-government program of action to deal with this gang culture" to report back to Parliament in October.
"I also believe we should be looking beyond our shores to learn the lessons from others who have faced similar problems," he said. "That is why I will be discussing how we can go further in getting to grips with gangs with people like Bill Bratton."
Cameron's Downing Street office said he had spoken to Bratton Friday after the former police chief agreed to take part in a series of meetings on tackling gangs in the fall.
"Bill Bratton, who has long-standing links with British policing, will be providing this advice in a personal capacity and on an unpaid basis," a Downing Street statement said.
Bratton, who since 2009 has worked for private security consultancy Altegrity and its subsidiary Kroll, is seen as having taken bold steps to cut crime rates in New York and Los Angeles.
"I would certainly be in a position to discuss the contemporary American experience and my work in these areas -- in particular the successes that created real reductions in gang-related crime in Boston, New York and most recently in Los Angeles, where we also saw significant improvements in the relations between the police and the city's diverse communities," he said in a statement on Kroll's website Friday.
"There are many lessons from these experiences that I believe are relevant to the current situation in England."
Bratton said he believed the British government could overcome the problem, adding: "I support their resolve to seize upon this difficult situation as an opportunity to address the issues of gangs and gang violence and the resulting fear and disorder head-on."
While there have been sporadic incidents of disorder, London has been calm since Tuesday morning and other cities since early Wednesday.
About 16,000 officers -- many more than usual -- are expected to remain on London's streets through the weekend.
Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg warned against stirring up more trouble over the weekend, urging anyone planning to do so to "think again."
And Home Secretary Theresa May announced that a march planned for Saturday by the English Defence League, a far-right group, had been banned.
"It is clear that a ban is needed to ensure communities and property are protected," she said Friday.
Officers would be deployed to Telford, the venue of the march, she said.
In Birmingham, where three young men were killed in a hit-and-run this week thought to be connected to the unrest, community groups are planning a "peace rally" Sunday, West Midlands Police said.
Meanwhile, Cameron has angered some senior police officers by saying he thought that initially there were "simply far too few police deployed onto the streets" in London, and that "the tactics they were using weren't working."
"Police chiefs have been frank with me about why this happened," he said Thursday. "Initially, the police treated the situation too much as a public order issue rather than essentially one of crime."
source : (CNN)
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