Water cannons may be on our streets within months: Tear gas and Tasers also on police 'wish list' to combat riots
- Senior officers say they are 'valuable' crowd control weapons
- Machines cost £1.3m but could provide fast response to violent outbreaks
- The Government signals it will foot the bill
- Critics say they will turn police into 'paramilitary force'
Every police force could have access to a water cannon within months as police chiefs vow to prevent a repeat of last summer's riots.
Senior officers are demanding the 'valuable' crowd control weapons, previously deployed by UK police only in Northern Ireland, and the Government has signalled that it will foot the bill.
Three of the fearsome £1.3million machines could be held at strategic locations to provide fast response to any outbreaks of violence.
Controversial water cannons are sanctioned for use in Northern Ireland. Here, nationalist youths come under attack in the Ardoyne area of Belfast in 2001
Chief constables are also considering whether tear gas and Taser stun guns could be used to restore order.
It would be the first time that any of the three weapons have been used for crowd control on the British mainland, and would represent a dramatic escalation in the armoury available for tackling mass disorder.
But critics said the move risks further transforming the police into a 'paramilitary force'.
It came as the Metropolitan Police published a review of the four days of rioting that shamed the nation last August.
Crowd control: The device has been used to quell trouble in Northern Ireland and now chief constables on the mainland are considering using them
Officers gave first-hand accounts of how they heroically confronted rampaging mobs with limited equipment and no back-up.
Some admitted they feared for their lives and, hopelessly outnumbered, were forced to leave homes and businesses to burn.
Senior officers, who say they will do 'everything possible' to prevent a repeat of the shocking scenes, are overhauling tactics to speed up the response to flashpoints and to improve how they monitor tensions in potential trouble-spots.
Plans to bring in cannons come as the Metropolitan Police has published a review of the four days of rioting the started in London last summer
Outnumbered: Concerns have been raised that police using water cannons could be too heavy handed and send out the wrong message
A series of reviews into the riots have blamed police for failing to react quickly enough to simmering community tensions last summer
They also threw their weight behind the introduction of water cannon to the streets of England and Wales.
The report said the Met has concluded that 'water cannon would be valuable in a few rare situations' and guidelines could be published within months.
Experts say the machines are too slow-moving to have been deployed effectively during the fast-moving August riots, and need to be refilled frequently, but their use could be considered in static or slow-moving clashes, for example when high-profile locations come under siege.
Terrifying image: Police chiefs are vowing to crack down on any attempt to repeat the riots of last August
The Government has signalled it will foot the bill for the water cannon if police can demonstrate they would be a cost-effective national asset.
The Met also revealed that a national review is taking place over whether Taser stun guns could be fired during riots and disorder.
Police are currently banned from using the 50,000-volt weapons in public order clashes because of the dangers of firing into a moving crowd.
Tasers were controversially fired five times as police helped to evict 80 families from the Dale Farm travellers' site in Essex last year.
Police chiefs are also examining whether tear gas canisters could be set off as a 'last resort' to disperse crowds.
CS gas, as the most commonly-used form is known, is often used during violent clashes on the Continent.
The noxious chemical clouds cause streaming eyes and coughing, in effect incapacitating the subject.
Police are already authorised to deploy the gas when faced with the risk of death, serious injury or substantial damage to property.
But it has not been used for crowd control because of fears that it is indiscriminate and could cause panic.
Police chiefs are grappling with widespread fears that fresh rioting could break out, fuelled by unemployment, political discontent and the struggling economy.
A series of reviews into the riots have blamed police for failing to react quickly enough to simmering community tensions last summer.
Critics have questioned whether ramping up the armoury of weapons available to police is the best way to tackle disorder.
A report by the Commons home affairs select committee said it would have been 'inappropriate as well as dangerous' to use water cannon during the summer riots.
Amnesty International has said it supports the self-imposed police ban on using Tasers in public protest situations and called for money to be spent on better training instead.
Jenny Jones, who sits on London's police and crime committee, said: 'The use of Tasers, CS gas and water cannon signals a dangerous escalation of police tactics.
'It risks turning the police into a paramilitary force. We are lucky to have policing by consent in this country, and this is a step on the wrong direction.'
Scotland Yard Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley said the August riots were 'without precedent' and 'stretched the Met beyond all anticipated capability'.
He said: 'Having faced unprecedented challenge we are determined to do all we can to improve.'
In December a watchdog highlighted how arsonists who put lives at risk during rioting could be lawfully shot dead by police.
Sir Denis O'Connor, Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Constabulary, said the use of firearms could be justified given the 'immediacy of the risk and the gravity of the consequences'.
