Suspects in the recent violent disorder in Bristol city centre can expect police to be “knocking on the door soon”, Avon and Somerset’s top officer has warned.

Chief Constable Sarah Crew said that as of yesterday morning (Monday, August 19), 32 people had been arrested in connection with the evening of disturbances on August 3 when far-right protesters clashed with police and counter-protesters at Castle Park, Bristol Bridge and Redcliffe Hill.

It happened during a week of anti-immigration riots led by extremists across the UK.

The chief constable said officers were looking for about 20 other people and that they could expect the law to catch up with them imminently.

Asked during the monthly Police Question Time grilling by Police & Crime Commissioner (PCC) Clare Moody on Monday how police were working with other criminal justice agencies to ensure swift action against the perpetrators, Chief Constable Crew said the experience gained from the Kill The Bill riots meant it was a “very joined-up, very seamless” approach.

She said the Crown Prosecution Service had extra lawyers available for longer to enable discussions about keeping people in custody and remand applications 

The officer said: “The magistrates court has sat longer with extended hearings so that when people are charged they can get a court date really quickly.

“Certainly in the crown court there is a real wish to sentence people where there is a guilty plea very early and we’ve seen already in Avon & Somerset some examples of people being convicted.

“At the last count we arrested 32 people.

“Right now, because there were plans this morning, that might be higher than that and we think we’ve got around 20 more people that we are actively seeking, so if they’re watching, somebody might be knocking on the door soon.”

She was speaking hours after the government took emergency measures in some parts of the country to ease prison overcrowding, partly because of the influx of rioters being jailed.

Suspects are being kept in police cells to await a court appearance until a prison cell is available.

And from next month, previously announced plans to shorten the amount of jail time inmates must serve of their sentence behind bars will be introduced to free up space.

Chief Constable Crew told the PCC on the Facebook Live broadcast: “I know one area people will have concerns about, particularly hearing the news today, is prison capacity and places in prison.

“That is something that’s being monitored on a daily basis.

“There are contingency plans of things that the Prison Service puts into place when capacity gets low.

“The extra spaces have been found and from September 10 there will be some releases that have been talked about that create more capacity.

“What the community needs to know is that when people need to be arrested, whether for disorder or anything else, measures are being taken so that we can absolutely continue to make those arrests, so people should not feel that that knock on the door isn’t coming – it’s absolutely coming.”

Ms Moody said: “That’s a very important message to send out that there are consequences to actions.

“There have been serious crimes committed during this disorder that had a big impact on our communities.

“We should also recognise that the impact wasn’t just on the public that we’re here to serve but it was also on the police officers who were involved and subjected to violence, and I know some officers ended up in hospital as a result.

“It’s important to recognise that there is a fundamental right in this country for people to be able to protest.

“But what we saw a couple of weeks ago was not that right to peaceful protest.”