Notting Hill Carnival: 353 Arrests Made As Numbers Fall Compared To Last Year

Police have said they arrested 353 people across both days of Notting Hill Carnival, with almost half the arrests drug-related.

The figures show a slight decline on the the 373 arrests made at Carnival in 2018.

The arrest figures issued by the Metropolitan Police come after a HuffPost UK investigation has shone a new light on policing of the Carnival and raised questions about whether the crime narrative that surrounds it is justified.

Data revealed exclusively by HuffPost UK on comparative crime and policing at five UK festivals showed arrest levels at Notting Hill were almost identical to those at Glastonbury when crowd size was taken into account.

The Carnival has at least 1million people attending every year, although the estimated crowd size is often thought to reach 2million people.

HuffPost UK’s data showed there were 3.76 arrests per 10,000 people at Notting Hill Carnival over three years from 2016 compared to 3.1 arrests per 10,000 people at Glastonbury.

The event with by far the highest arrest rate was the famous dance music festival Creamfields, which had 23.67 arrests per 10,000 people attending.

Commentators said the findings highlight how festivals attended by working class or black and minority ethic (BAME) audiences are more likely to be “over-policed”. 

But the Met said any suggestion it polices events based on the ethnicity of those attending is completely unfounded.

Commander Dave Musker, Gold Commander for Notting Hill Carnival 2019, said: “The footprint and environment of Notting Hill Carnival is incomparable to other festivals and far more complex to police.

“Other festivals have enclosed, designated footprints requiring a ticket and ID to enter. Carnival has no boundaries and spans a significant part of west London, bringing more than one million visitors over the space of a weekend.”

He said that while the vast majority of Carnival goers are law-abiding, sadly, a small number are intent on committing acts of violence.

Scotland Yard said 242 arrests were carried out on Monday at this year’s Carnival, with 111 arrests the previous day.

At least 30 Met officers had suffered minor injuries during the carnival by 10.10pm on Monday, according to the force’s figures, with 37 arrests recorded for assaults on police.

There were also 37 arrests for the possession of offensive weapons and 162 for drugs.

Police were given extra stop and search powers for the duration of the carnival via a section 60 order.