The Met Police has been fiercely criticised by Labour MPs for arresting women’s safety volunteers in central London during the early hours of coronation day.
Campaigners told The Independent that volunteers who work for Westminster Council’s night life safety team had been detained in custody for 15 hours.
The Metropolitan Police said that, at around 2am on Saturday, three people were stopped by officers and arrested in Soho on suspicion of conspiracy to commit public nuisance. Britain’s largest police force said rape alarms were some of the items they seized.
Kate Osborne, a Labour MP who sits on the women and equalities committee, told The Independent it was “an absolute disgrace” that Metropolitan Police officers had arrested people “for doing the voluntary work they do every week handing out rape alarms to women”.
The politician added: “The nonsense excuses from the Met Police that they were acting on a potential risk and policing proportionately must be challenged.”
Ms Osborne said that women’s trust in Britain’s largest police force has greatly deteriorated. She warned: “These actions alongside the other arrests of protesters at the weekend are grotesque attacks on the right to protest and civil liberties”.
It comes after the Met Police said it “received intelligence that indicated groups and individuals seeking to disrupt today’s coronation proceedings were planning to use rape alarms to disrupt the procession”.
Three individuals – a 37-year-old woman, a 59-year-old woman and a 47-year-old man – were transported to a south London police station, where they underwent questioning.
Jamie Klingler, co-founder of Reclaim These Streets, a leading campaign group which focuses on policing, neighbourhood safety, and protest rights, said the volunteers were “wearing protective Hi Viz that clearly demonstrated that they were who they said they were” as she noted the Met Police supports the scheme.
She added: “But why listen to reasonable explanations? Why believe women? Why use common sense when you can wield your power and hold volunteers in custody for 15 hours for doing the work that the Met refuses to do.
“People were playing tubas astride those horses; a rape alarm would have made no difference and the back tracking now is yet another black eye for the Met.”
It comes after the Met Police battled criticism for their heavy-handed response to anti-monarchy protesters on Saturday - with dozens of demonstators from anti-monarchy and environmental organisations arrested in what was condemned as a “dystopian nightmare”.
Discussing the arrests of the women’s safety volunteers, Nadia Whittome, MP for Nottingham East, told The Independent: “These arrests are not only an infringement on the fundamental democratic right to protest, but have also prevented nighttime safety volunteers from assisting vulnerable women with rape alarms.
“They are yet another example to add to the Met Police’s appalling record of institutional misogyny.”
Dr Charlotte Proudman, a prominent feminist barrister, said: “It’s ironic that a police force described as institutionally misogynist, which had rapists working within it, wants to clamp down on rape alarms.”
Councillor Aicha Less, cabinet member for communities and public protection at Westminster City Council, said they were “deeply concerned by reports of our Night Stars volunteers being arrested overnight”.
She added: “This service has been a familiar and welcome sight in the West End for a long time and have extensive training so they can assist the most vulnerable on the streets late at night.”
David Challen, a prominent domestic abuse campaigner, called for the Met Police to provide “clarification” of the “circumstances” of the arrests.
Criticism of the Met Police comes after a scathing report into policing in March found that officers had failed to protect women. Rape cases were dropped because DNA evidence was ruined when it was stored in “over-stuffed, dilapidated or broken fridges and freezers” used by the Metropolitan Police.
The Baroness Casey Review concluded that Britain’s largest police force is institutionally racist, misogynist and homophobic. It found that a “culture of denial” had allowed predators to flourish, and that officers had used their position of power for sexual purposes.
