Police have identified 17 potential suspects responsible for tearing down the Edward Colston statue at the Black Lives Matter protest in Bristol yesterday (Sunday).
Superintendent Andy Bennett appeared on local radio to talk about the protests.
When asked how he would feel seeing the culprits potentially appear before a court for their actions, he said police were "duty-bound" to look into it.
He told the BBC: "As a police officer, I don't get to choose which laws I uphold and which I don't. We are duty-bound to investigate this.
"We know and have identified 17 main offenders in terms of tearing it down and an investigation is underway."
Chief Constable Andy Marsh took to social media today to praise the efforts of police officers from Avon and Somerset Police, despite criticisms from the Police Federation.
He said: "We went to lengths to caution people before the protest against attending because of the risk of spreading covid but as expected people turned up and there was a crowd of over 10,000.
"Midway through the protest we saw CCTV images in our control room of protesters on top of the Colston statue. Within two minutes that statue had been pulled down.
"We had deployed officers to respond and take appropriate action but the commanders on the ground made the decision that to intervene and arrest suspects would likely have led to injuries to suspects, injuries to officers and people involved in not damaging property being drawn into very violent confrontation with police which have had serious ramifications for the city of Bristol and beyond.
"Can you imagine scenes of police in Bristol fighting with protesters who were damaging the statue of a man who is reputed to have gathered much of his fortune through the slave trade.
"I think there would have been very serious implications and whilst I certainly do not condone criminal damage of any sort I fully support the actions of my officers, they responded with common sense, sound judgement and in the best interest of public safety."
