The estate where Pc Keith Blakelock was killed during Tottenham riots was today described as "impossible to police" by the highest-ranking officer at the scene.
Pc Blakelock, 40, was killed as he tried to protect firefighters during the height of the unrest on the Broadwater Farm estate in north London on October 6 1985.
The Old Bailey trial of Nicky Jacobs, 45, who is accused of murdering him, heard the estate had been singled out by Scotland Yard because of its "supposed association with the sale and use of drugs and potential for disorder".
Violence broke out there after local woman Cynthia Jarrett died of a heart attack as police searched her house.
Chief Superintendent Colin Couch, who worked in the area's police station, told the court: "Tottenham was a working-class, multi-ethnic area and after the death of Cynthia Jarrett I was concerned that we would witness disorder."
But asked by Courtenay Griffiths QC, for the defence, if a contingency plan had been put in place for riots, Mr Couch replied: "No, there wasn't."
The court heard that former Scotland Yard commissioner Sir Kenneth Newman had put together a list of "symbolic areas" police needed to keep an eye on at the time, which included Broadwater Farm.
But Mr Couch denied that the estate was on the list because of crime, but rather because anyone could cross it from one side to another without descending to street level, making it "impossible to police".
"We were policing it very sensibly," he added.
Mr Couch said that on the day of the riots he had met members of Mrs Jarrett's family and community leaders.
Tensions had gone from being "nose to nose, but not violent" during the afternoon to a full onslaught at night, when disturbances broke out on the Broadwater estate.
Waiting outside after sending Pc Blakelock's unit and firefighters into a building to deal with a blaze, he later saw two officers running out and then a "silver lump" lying on the ground.
Then, he said, "four or five jumped on him and appeared to stab him".
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Asked about criticisms he received afterwards from rank-and-file police officers, Mr Couch said: "They didn't have the decision to make. I did."
Jacobs denies murder.
