Flashcards
Public order policing
Cards in this deck (14)
- 1Public order policing overviewPublic order policing
Policing crowds
Hard or soft policing styles
Use of force
Use of surveillance - 2Definitioncrowd management is the focus of policing large scale national and regional events. It includes the policing of planned and spontaneous public events (such as protest and football) and the policing of any events or trigger incidents which result in or may result in public disorder.
public order APP is aimed at those involved in planning and commanding operations. It provides a framework for managing operations and deploying resources at a national, regional or local level.
Source: College of policing - 3European Convention on Human RightsArticle 10 - freedom of expression
Article 11 - freedom of assembly (freedom of allowing people to gather together)
Gold Commander - May Day 2010, London explicitly acknowledged this by saying that the Policing style employed in the policing of the protests on that particular day was meant to be ‘facilitative and operate within a Human Rights framework that balances, as far as practicable, the rights and freedoms of all who are involved” - 4“The game has changed” Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson (2010)“The game has changed” what Stephenson was referring to was the ways in which things like social media/technology had that changed the nature of protest and the speed at which protests could gather
The character of protest has changed in terms of:
The numbers involved
Spread across the country
Associated sporadic violence
Disruption caused
Short notice or no-notice events
Changes in protest tactics (e.g. BBM)
Adapted from HMIC, 2011 - 5The (ir)rationality of crowds“Crowds don’t have motives - that’s far too calculating and rational. Crowd behaviour is dynamic in unpredictable ways, and reason and motive disappear when crowds move unpredictably” (Brewer and Wollman, 2011, cited in Gorringe and Rosie, 2011) - emphasising the very irrationality of a crowd
Defining crowds as irrational potentially prompts a violent police response (cf. Schweingruber, 2000; Reicher et al., 2004) - so they identified many problems with the first statement because if we assume the crowd is going to be irrational and act in irrational and unpredictable ways then that can prompt violent police response.
Association of Chiefs police officers ACPO’s Manual of Guidance on Keeping the Peace states that “planning for public order and public safety events should never start from the premise that crowds are inherently irrational or dangerous” - 6The (ir)rationality of crowdsWaddington (2007) describes a shift in UK policing styles throughout 1960s-70s away from ‘escalated force’. (an overwhelming use of force to dampen down any potential rioting and using force to deal with a crowd that is thought to be irrational)
- Instead of using force ahead of the ‘riot curve’, there was a reemphasis upon ‘dialogue, under-enforcement and negotiation’ - to diminish risk of violence occuring (Gorringe and Rosie, 2011: 2)
-Others (see Jefferson, 1993) question this and point to a rise in ‘paramilitary styles of policing’ -
Mass disorder research suggests that crowds tend to be
- Representative of their communities (the people that live in that area)
Highly patterned and selective
- Not ‘mindless criminals’. However, there is also unlikely to be a single, unifying reason. There might be ‘issueless riots’ (see Marx, 1970) - 7‘Hard’ or ‘soft’ policing: keeping the peace or containing disorderHard policing - what are the ‘costs’ of using plastic bullets or deploying water cannons?
-Is ‘kettling’ a useful tactic? Can you isolate ‘troublemakers’ from law-abiding protestors? (kettling is a way of keeping a group contained for long periods of time, the idea being that the energy contained within that group, if they are kept in a place for a long period of time it will be dissipated and easier to manage the dispersal of that group later on )
-Can you ‘target harden’ an area? is it possible to almost riot proof a particular area which is likely to see a protest taking place
-use of plastic bullets or high power water cannons - what are the costs for using them - social costs
Soft policing
- How can you ‘build trust’ with leaders?
- How can you communicate with the crowd or specific elements within a crowd? - 8....
- 9‘Hard’ or ‘soft’ policing: keeping the peace or containing disorderHard policing - what are the ‘costs’ of using plastic bullets or deploying water cannons?
-Is ‘kettling’ a useful tactic? Can you isolate ‘troublemakers’ from law-abiding protestors?
- Can you ‘target harden’ an area?
Soft policing
-How can you ‘build trust’ with leaders?
-How can you communicate with the crowd or specific elements within a crowd? - 10Hard policing: use of forceWhat is a ‘proportionate’ level of force whilst policing mass public disorder?
her Majesty's inspectorate did have the phrasing that the level of force should be the minimum necessary to achieve the legitimate aim
Confusion over terminology
The correct phrasing - ‘the minimum [force] necessary to achieve the legitimate aim’ (HMIC, 2011: 20)
Alternative/additional phrasing used by trainers - ‘corresponding’, ‘doing the right thing for the circumstances’ ‘meeting the strategic aim’ and ‘making defensible decisions’. - 11Soft policing: surveillanceIs it appropriate to shut down social media (e.g. BBM) during a public order event? in order to dissuade people from communicating with others on phones
-Does technology diffuse leadership in riots?
- Is it possible for Police to pro-actively utilise social media to engage with rioters? (to get the point across to try maintain peace) Can social media be a way to promote legitimacy?
Using FIT (Forward Intelligence Team) - 2 or 3 uniformed officers to gather info on the ‘changing mood, dynamics and intent of crowds’ (HMIC, 2011: 18) so what the crowd is thinking and their mood and how its operating. And if theyre worried about particular individuals perhaps causing disorder, you can use the FIT team to remove them
Do you use overt photography/filming? And what is your response to ‘sousveillance’ - individuals in the crowd filming the police - 12Metropolitan Police Service strategic intentions - May Day 2010, London [Taken from HMIC, 2011: 28]so the stated intentions back in 2010 for dealing with this particular public order event in May 2010:
• To provide a lawful and proportionate policing response to protest, balancing the needs and rights of protestors with those impacted by the protest.
• To maintain public order.
• To prevent crime and take all reasonable steps to bring offenders to justice.
• To work with event organisers/participants.
• To prevent serious disruption to the community.
• To provide an appropriate counter terrorism response - 13Metropolitan Police Service directions - May Day 2010, London [Taken from HMIC, 2011: 28]The specific directions that the gold commander gave to those officers on the ground were:
• Arrest policy – ‘Which type of intervention would be most appropriate to the situation?’
• Stop and search – ‘It is my expectation that these powers will only be used
where there is a specific purpose.’
• Use of containment – ‘This tactic must only be used where it is proportionate
and necessary and in furtherance of Gold’s strategy.’
• Press – ‘They have the right to report on what is happening and it is not the
role of the police either to impede them in this or to censor what they wish to
photograph.’
• Dress – ‘I do not want us to deliver an extremely successful operation only for this to be undermined by a picture in the press of one of our officers being
incorrectly dressed.’ - 14from the reading 'policing protests lessons from the occupy movement, ferguson & beyond: A guide for police@' Edward R. Maguire & Megan Oakley"When police are viewed as exerting their authority in an oppressive way, conflict becomes more likely. If the
goal is genuinely to keep the peace and prevent conflict, dressing officers in riot gear and shutting down
dialogue between protesters and police is likely to fail."
i agree and i think this has been made clear at BLM protests
Information
- Description
- Flashcards on Public order policing, created by megan trent on 11/03/2021.
- Created by
- megan trent
- Views
- 0
- Rating