Exclusive: Top police chief told officers to take the knee at BLM protests
Leaked documents raise fresh questions over police impartiality during the BLM riots.
Editor’s note: All source documents cited in this investigation are reproduced in full at the end of the article. If you reference or report on these documents, please credit independent journalist Steven Edginton as the original publisher.
This Substack can reveal that a senior police chief backed the BLM movement during the riots of 2020, telling officers to “take the knee.”
In a letter published here for the first time, Ben-Julian Harrington, Chair of the National Police Chiefs’ Council, told police chiefs that they “would have our support” if officers chose to take the knee at BLM protests.
An internal police risk assessment also warned officers that “refusing protestor requests to ‘take the knee’ and instead walking away or folding their arms” could “trigger” protesters to riot.
The letter from Harrington, who is also Chief Constable of Essex Police, was addressed to the National Police Coordination Centre (NPoCC), the body responsible for coordinating police responses across the UK during periods of public unrest.
Writing in the aftermath of the BLM riots in June 2020, Harrington issued guidance to police forces on whether officers should take the knee while policing protests.
He described taking the knee as “an act of solidarity and empathy for George Floyd, his family and all who seek justice and accountability for those concerned”.
While emphasising that operational decisions should remain with local commanders, he said officers who wished to do so “in line with their personal values and emotions” could take the knee.
“As long as this does not endanger the public, their colleagues, themselves or undermine the aims of the policing operation... this would have our support,” Harrington wrote.
