London's biggest street party faces serious safety concerns from police officers
Police survey shows major safety issues at Notting Hill Carnival‚ with most officers feeling unsafe during the event. Event organizers question survey methods and suggest hidden agenda behind the report
A new-found report about Notting Hill Carnival (Europes largest street celebration) shows deep-rooted safety problems for law enforcement workers
Hell. Its a war zone we are sent into year after year I would rather crawl naked through broken glass [[survey respondent]]
The report by Simon Hill and the Metropolitan Police Federation shows concerning data from their mid-fall survey: about 89% of police staff dont feel safe at work during carnival time‚ and nearly 29% faced physical attacks. The survey (which got 486 responses) looked at front-line experiences working at the mega-party that brings hundreds-of-thousands to west-London streets each August
This years carnival had some rough numbers:
- 349 people arrested
- 61 police workers attacked
- 8 knife-related incidents
- 2 deaths
Hill‚ who works as deputy general-secretary says officers work super-long hours - like 30-40 hours in just two days; which isnt good for their health. He points out that no other London event has such big problems with crime and safety
The carnival company - Notting Hill Carnival Ltd - fights back saying the report has problems: “This survey shows views of just 7% of working officers and seems to push anti-carnival ideas that come up every year“‚ they wrote in their counter-statement. They think police use carnival to cover-up their own work-management issues
