A police dispersal order that targeted children and caused outrage in Romany Gypsy and Irish Traveller communities could have been avoided, a city’s deputy mayor has said.
Groups of young people were turned away from Manchester’s Christmas markets by Greater Manchester Police and put back on trains at Manchester Victoria in response to reports of anti-social behaviour on 23 November.
The region’s deputy mayor Kate Green said the force could have anticipated the issues sooner on what was an “extremely busy” day in the city centre.
She said the order, described as “heavy-handed” by equality groups, also raised issues about police acting “proportionately” and without unfair discrimination.
The Traveller Movement previously described the dispersal order as “completely unacceptable”, and said the children had been “unfairly targeted and marginalised”.
In a review of the incident, Kate Green said there were “lessons to be learned”, adding she had written to Chief Constable Stephen Watson to ask Greater Manchester Police (GMP) to “address a number of matters”.
At the time, Greater Manchester Police (GMP) assistant Chief Constable Rick Jackson said officers had acted based on “intelligence” about anti-social behaviour on trains.
The actions led to a protest in Manchester city centre from the Traveller community, with the Traveller Movement demanding a public apology from police.
The advocacy group said it was also considering referring the incident to the Independent Office for Police Conduct.
Green said police had provided an account of what happened and said she “understood the rationale” due to a surge in “crime, anti social behaviour and disorder across the city centre” that day.
But the deputy mayor said GMP could have engaged the Romany, Gypsy, and Irish Traveller communities in advance to head off any issues.
“This could have prevented this dispersal order being issued and applied in the way that it was.”
She has also ordered GMP to review the safeguarding implications of putting children back on trains.
The deputy mayor said she had received concerns the order was “applied in a discriminatory manner”, adding all complaints would be investigated by GMP’s professional standards department
“I will monitor the progress and outcomes of these cases carefully.”