Following the violence, Chief Constable James Anderton of Greater Manchester met with local community leaders including councillors, churchmen and youth workers.
Anderton later told the Greater Manchester Police Committee that the community leaders had failed to deliver on their promise to restore peace and were simply unable to admit their lack of influence over the people engaged in the rioting.
A mobile task force of 560 officers in 50 transit vans and Land Rovers had been assembled in local police stations around the area of protests.
These tactics involved vehicles containing "snatch squads" being driven at high speed into groups of protesters, with officers then leaping out to make arrests.
It has been reported that Anderton had earlier given a speech to the assembled officers at Moss Side Police Station encouraging them to restore order as rapidly as possible and promising them his full support in the event of any complaints of excessive force.
[citation needed] Anti-racism campaigner Louise Da-Cocodia helped transport victims of the Moss Side protest to hospital, and later sat on the Hytner inquiry panel investigating the causes of the unrest.
[1] Interviewed in a 1992 BBC documentary on his career following his retirement as Chief Constable of Greater Manchester, James Anderton described his strategy during the Moss Side riots: "When trouble arises and violence occurs on the street, you hit it fast and hard.
In a 2006 retrospective on the 25th anniversary of the riots, Manchester Central's Chief Supt Dave Thompson said that the police had simply not met the needs of the community.
Academic Gus John said that "police used to criminalise young people for no good reason", and that the community saw the hypocrisy of certain officers who stopped and searched youths in Moss Side while on duty but drank and smoked at the area's illegal shebeens while off-duty.