00:00These are the scenes Liverpool fans hope to remember from Monday.
00:06A city-wide celebration of the team's Premier League title win, their first in five years.
00:13Instead, jubilation turned to devastation after a car drove into fans in Water Street at around 6pm, injuring close to 50 people.
00:23Thoughts were with the victims, an admiration for the emergency services and members of the public who rushed to help.
00:31The car stopped at the scene and a 53-year-old white British man from the Liverpool area was arrested.
00:38We believe him to be the driver of the vehicle. The incident is not being treated as terrorism.
00:46It took Merseyside Police less than two hours to reveal the ethnicity and nationality of the suspect.
00:53And, as morning broke on Tuesday, questions were beginning to be asked about the speed with which the information was released,
01:01with one former Chief Superintendent describing it as unprecedented.
01:06Last summer, the same force was criticised in the wake of the Southport murders for not releasing more information about the suspect,
01:14as false rumours spread online that the killer was a Muslim asylum seeker.
01:19Police did disclose that the suspect was a 17-year-old male from Banks in Lancashire, who was born in Cardiff.
01:26But widespread rioting followed the murders, with some disorder targeting mosques and hotels housing asylum seekers.
01:34One Chief Constable said later that she wanted to dispel disinformation in the immediate aftermath
01:40by releasing information about attacker Axel Rudicabana's Christian background,
01:45but was told not to by local Crown prosecutors.
01:49Under the Contempt of Court Act 1981, information that could prejudice a trial should not be reported,
01:57making the level of detail released by police on Monday even more unusual.
02:02However, local politicians in Liverpool have backed the police's decision,
02:07and urged people to be cautious about where they get their information.
02:11Social media platforms have a job to make sure that lies are perpetrated on these platforms,
02:17that, you know, create hostilities within our communities.
02:21You know, your news outlets provide accurate, up-to-date information,
02:26and I would urge people, you know, to be wary about how they get their information
02:30and what they do with that information.
02:32I mean, if you believe some of the stories in the immediacy of what happened,
02:36that might have frightened people and caused even more concern and distress.
02:40Really, it's about what the police are saying
02:43and what the agencies that support the police are saying.
02:46However, too much information can pose its own dangers.
02:50In 2010, Christopher Jeffries was arrested over the death of Joanna Yates.
02:55He was innocent, but hardly treated as such in the days after his name was made public.
03:00In recent years, the law has prioritised the privacy of suspects.
03:04In 2023, Lancashire Police was criticised for revealing highly sensitive personal information about Nicola Bully,
03:12a 45-year-old mother of two who went missing and whose body was found in the River Wyatt three weeks later.
03:19A review found the force failed to adequately fill the information vacuum
03:24and allowed speculation to run unchecked.
03:27This morning, the Prime Minister was asked if Merseyside Police's decision yesterday
03:32could set a precedent for similar future cases.
03:35Well, that is a matter for the police and the investigation is ongoing,
03:39so I think we need to leave that to them.
03:41I think today is a day really for thinking about all those impacted by this
03:45and being absolutely clear that we stand with them.
03:49Having criticised Merseyside Police's hesitant communication last summer,
03:54Reform UK leader Nigel Farage commended them this time around.
03:58It led to a big gap. Conspiracy theories on social media.
04:02I called. Please tell us. Just tell us what it is.
04:05I think the riots would have been nowhere near as bad last year if we'd known the truth.
04:10And I think this time Merseyside Police have got it right.
04:13Will police now be expected to state a suspect's ethnicity and nationality in future cases?
04:19And will that information inflame or ease tensions?
04:23Or feed rather than dispel false narratives?
04:27Deciding what information should and should not be released early on
04:31presents an unenviable future challenge for police forces up and down the country.
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