Police did not do enough to identify the organisers of the Belfast protest in 2020, says the ombudsman.
Police were not consistent in how they dealt with the war memorials protesters and those at a Black Lives Matter demonstration in the same month, says the ombudsmanThe police investigation into a "protect our monuments" protest in Belfast was closed prematurely, the Police Ombudsman has concluded.
PSNI Assistant Chief Constable Bobby Singleton said the protest had happened at a time when legislation on gatherings during the pandemic was "rapidly changing".Mrs Anderson concluded there was a failure to exploit intelligence which may have led to the identification of the protest organisers. "Viable lines of inquiry existed if the available intelligence had been accessed and in my view the senior investigating officer did not carry out a thorough and careful investigation."Fines were issues to Black Lives Matter protesters in Belfast and Londonderry in June 2020
The "lack of consistency" was likely to "compound damage to confidence in policing" within ethnic minority communities, said Mrs Anderson.At the time of the monuments demonstration the police said they had encouraged people to comply with health regulations in place.However it stated that a "substantial" evidence gathering operation had been in place.
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