Did police in Merseyside, England, single out far-right Southport rioters by publishing their addresses online? No, that's not true: Merseyside police routinely release information on people charged with a variety of crimes, their X account shows. The force only releases the names of arrestees when they are charged, a Merseyside police spokeswoman told Lead Stories. A police news release showed that they released the address of one man accused of taking part in the Southport riots after he was charged.
The claim about the Merseyside police was implied in a post (archived here) on X, the site formerly known as Twitter, on August 23, 2024. The post included an original tweet from the Merseyside police (archived here) that showed an arrest video and personal information about a man jailed for 20 months over his alleged involvement in the "disorder in Southport."
The post about the police read:
They are doxxing their families addresses . Anyone seen any high production video arrests like this of Muslim child rape gangs . The state have chosen a side & it's not on the British publics
This is what the post looked like on X at the time of writing:
(Source: X screenshot taken on Fri Aug 23 07:27:16 2024 UTC)
The post referred to a series of riots by anti-migrant protesters following the death of three girls from a July 19, 2024, knife attack at a dance class in Southport, England. The suspect is a British-born male whose parents are reportedly from Rwanda.
Lead Stories contacted the Merseyside police to ask about the post's claim. In an email, dated August 23, 2024, a spokeswoman said that the force does not release names of people upon arrest, only when they are charged.
On August 14, 2024, the Merseyside police announced (archived here) on their website that Thomas Whitehead, the man seen in the video, had been charged with "violent disorder in Southport and Liverpool" and placed into custody, pending trial. The release, like the video of his arrest posted on X, included his age and place of residence, but, according to the police news release, after he had been charged.
The Merseyside police spokeswoman did not answer a follow-up question about the post's claim that police are engaged in "doxxing," the practice of publishing identifying information about people online without their consent and usually with ill intent.
A quick search of the Merseyside police's X account shows that the police routinely release information about those charged with a crime. Examples of released information about such suspects -- not just those involved in the riots -- can be found here, here and here (archived here, here and here).
Lead Stories has debunked other claims about Southport. You can read a collection of those fact checks here.
