Within two hours Car in a crowd in Liverpool City Center, police had confirmed that the alleged driver was a 53 -year -old white man in the Mercesis area.
There is no doubt that to prevent the spread of online misinformation, which had already begun to broadcast on social media with graphic footage of the incident, Mercesis police In the early stages of investigation, an unusual decision was taken to share the ethnicity and nationality of the suspect.
It marks a “full step change” in their approach to a horrific knife attack response Southport in last summerPolice commentators have noted.
A vacuum of information after stabbing in the children’s dance class was filled with misinformation about the ethnicity and asylum status of the suspect, which helped fuel Angry far-flung riots Which erupted across the country.
On that occasion, the police had told the public that they had arrested a 17 -year -old man from Lancashire’s banks, who was born in Cardiff, but reduced to reduce the increase in misinformation being shared on social media.
Large -scale disturbance clearly portrayed new threat to the police that responded to high profile events in an online era – social media tinderbox and armed misinformation.
After the accident at Liverpool’s Premier League Victory Parade on Monday, who was injured 50 and left thousands shocked football fans trapped in the city center, police acted fast.
Peter Williams, senior lecturer at Passing at Liverpool John Murce University, told the BBC Radio 4 program that there is a “shift” in his point of view.
He said: “This has been a change, because, especially in relation to later Southport … Mercyside police and of course were very criticized to focus on CPS, in connection with how information was dealt with managing information.”
He later said: “It was not surprising for me last night that within an hour or an hour, we received a statement to say what happened and someone, a man was detained.
“Later, there was a press conference led by the Assistant Chief Constable, where he shared a lot of information.
“As the investigation proceeds, which will be a prominent under the leadership of the major investigation team, which will be shared with the public, so a full step has changed in what the police has done to the public.”
Dal Babu, a former Chief Superintendent of London’s Metropolitan Police, said it was “unprecedented” and the police worked “very early” in the suspect’s ethnicity and race. He said that it was an attempt to cool social media speculation that this episode was an Islamist attack.
Steve Roderham, Mayor of Liverpool City Metro, said it was “to do the right thing” to insert online speculation.
“Because if you already take a look on social media, within a few minutes of the incident, there were speculation, and there were some nefarious groups that were trying to stir some speculation, which were responsible for it,” he said.
“So the whole idea was that for some on the bed, of course, wrong information and disintegration that was out of there, and to try to calm people.”
The pressure on the police that responding to such incidents is not only coming from the public – politicians are also intensifying rapidly to demand information.
In view of the Southport attack, the comments of the reform leader Nigel Faraj, asking if the truth is coming back from us, was criticized to help fuel the unrest.
Shortly after yesterday’s incident in Liverpool, Shadow Home Secretary Chris Filp posted on X: “The public is worth knowing the facts as soon as possible.”
However, politicians will know very well that the police should balance any future tests with the risk of bias.
The contempt of court laws is strictly limited to what can be shared about a case before going for a test.
Former Mercyssed Police Assistant Chief Constable Helen King warned that we should not expect to release such information as a routine case.
“I think I think what I worry with future events, there is always a risk that the police may not be able to do so, and we need to manage public and media expectations,” he said.
“There can be occasions when this is not clear, the public is asking for information. The police will not want to release wrong information and will reduce the trust of the public in that way.
“And also that a major criminal inquiry is now underway that the investigation should not be compromised, and in future events, the suspects can be released in detail, potentially an inquiry or court case about those arrested.
He said that sharing information was “right to do this occasion”, but said that each event would be different.
He said, “This is a really difficult new world, it is not that the courts that the police are running, we need to do their work, let other emergency services and prosecution officers do their work and do not go to demand information,” he said.