Police made almost 2,500 arrests of environmental protestors in past year
The Police have arrested more than 2,400 activists from environmental groups in the past year, it has been revealed.
Almost seven campaigners a day have been detained from Just Stop Oil, Extinction Rebellion and Insulate Britain groups, between 3 November 2021-2.
The figures were obtained by a Freedom of Information Request from Morning Wire, but the National Police Chiefs Council said it couldn’t reveal the cost of policing protests by the three groups.
It also couldn’t reveal how much it costs to process a single arrest.
This comes after a year of protest and disruption from campaigners amid the soaring cost of living, inflation, and rising energy prices.
Among the 2,416 arrests in the past year, the overwhelming majority were of Just Stop Oil demonstrators, with 1791, while 448 were Extinction Rebellion.
Earlier in the year, Insulate Britain activists disrupted roads by gluing themselves to tarmac, protesting poor insulation in UK homes as energy prices rise. 171 have been arrested by that group.
The protest figures are from 03/11/2021 to 03/11/2022, before the recent round of Just Stop Oil demonstrations on the M25, which have resulted in tens of campaigners being charged.
In the past month, more than a thousand Just Stop Oil demonstrators have been detained during a series of disruptive protests against 100 new UK government licenses for gas and oil.
This week, Just Stop Oil marked the start of the COP27 summit in Egypt by climbing onto gantries across the M25, with at least 22 people charged so far.
Six police forces have engaged in an operation around the M25, but protestors have repeatedly forced the motorway’s closure.
The Met Police told Morning Wire that so far 750 have been arrested and 159 have been charged in the M25 protests.
Earlier this week, Home Secretary Suella Braverman spoke at the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners, and National Police Chiefs’ Council Partnership Summit 2022, where she lashed out at the “guerrilla tactics” of Just Stop Oil in particular.
Braverman called for more “common sense policing” of protests by groups like Just Stop Oil, saying police officers should be “properly empowered to do the job”.
“Although most police officers do an excellent job, sadly, in recent months and years we have seen an erosion of confidence in the police to take action against the radicals, the road-blockers, the vandals, the militants and the extremists”, she said.
“We have also seen the police appear to lose confidence in themselves”.
“Criminal damage, obstructing the highway, public nuisance – none of it should be humoured. It is not a human right to vandalise a work of art. It is not a civil liberty to stop ambulances getting to the sick and injured.”
She warned that environmental activists’ “disruption is a threat to our way of life. It does not ‘further a cause’. It is not ‘freedom of expression’”, as she added the government would be giving its “full backing in taking a firmer line to safeguard public order”.
Braverman said the police had been negatively impacted by “a restricted interpretation” of the law in tackling protest, owing to a “lack of certainty on the meaning of serious disruption” and how the “cumulative impact of repeated protests should be considered”.
Saying this uncertainty “has led to a limited use of existing powers” the Home secretary said “improved guidance on these matters will help officers “make full use of the powers available to them with confidence.”
The Met Police has been asked how much processing an arrest costs.