An inquiry by MPs into the 1 April G20 protests has concluded that untrained police officers must never again be placed in the frontline of public protest.
From the Guardian:
The conclusion from the Commons home affairs select committee inquiry into the G20 protests of April 1 follows admissions from senior Metropolitan police officers that some inexperienced officers, who were clearly quite scared, used “inappropriate force”.
The report by the cross-party group of MPs says they “cannot condone the use of untrained, inexperienced officers on the frontline of a public protest under any circumstances”.
The inquiry also calls for the police to seriously consider whether they can continue with the use of tactics such as kettling – containing protesters behind cordons for a sustained period of time – and the controlled use of force against those who appear hostile without first holding a public debate over the future of policing public protests.
The report includes sections on Relations with the Media, Communications between Protesters and Police, Use of Close Containment, The Use of Force and The Use of Tasers. It does not comment on the death of Ian Tomlinson, instead summarising the policing of the G20 protests as a “remarkably successful operation” and making only oblique reference to “a few high-profile incidents.”
The report also says that, given the use of untrained and inexperienced officers “in such a highly combustible atmosphere”, the operation’s success was down to luck.
You can read the full report here.
Also see Libby Purves in the Times on how policing civilians is a subtle and unresearched science.
As the Committee Chairman Keith Vaz said,
The basic principle that the police must remember is that protestors are not criminals – the police’s doctrine must remain focused on allowing protest to happen peacefully.
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4 Comments
God I’m a cynic these days.
My immediate thought is:
“In the wake of headlines showing him in a less than positive light, Keith Vaz attempts to score points with the anti-authority & anti-authoritarian guardian types by appearing to confront the police.
Cleverly he manages to also score points with the police by blaming failures on ‘innexperienced’ officers rather than police policy or even incompetent officers.’ ”
And as I don’t have any time to wade through the actual evidence I guess I’ll stay ambivalent on Vaz and the Met.
The ability of the police to plan and manage the unexpected events that are always implicit in all public demonstrations, must always ensure that people have the right to protest freely and peacefully on any major issue in the streets without fear or harm.
The rights of British people to publically demonstrate within the Public Order Acts, is one of the most important liberties that has to be preserved at all cost within our Constitution.
I believe that our Police require trust and support to execute their duty well in our large Cities and by and large they succeed at a local level,in my experience, I see the police as dutiful and professional.
I personally have great respect for the difficult work achieved each day by the Met.Police in my local Borough.
David Heath and Tom Brake M.P. and others seeking to see fairness and human rights at the G20 Public Demoo. and the excellent piece by Libby Purves, have all stressed paramount concern about the use of `kettling’ tactics.
`Kettling’ I belive is a denial of access to food and water and therby an infringement of human rights to those held in that situ.
I further believe that the training of our police in vitally coherent and practical riot control tactics, must contain the maximum in language of restraint and response, even given that our police officers are often placed under ultimate tests of courage and leadership in the streets.
But the police are there as public servants and their first duty is to protect the British public from harm,risk and danger : too often at cost to their own personal safety.
That is the nature of a tough job that requires the highest level of training and understanding.
So the select committee swallows whole the argument ‘It isn’t our good police force becoming ever more extreme in its policing of dissent and using ever more draconean interpretations of its powers (e.g. kettling), but a few officers we had to use who weren’t properly trained (probably not properly trained to put their id badges on either) and the problem will all go away once we get them trained (presumably trained not to get caught).
I don’t swallow the whole ‘untrained officers’ was the problem line. For one thing ALL PCs get basic training in public order policing as part of their training to become a PC. Secondly as far as I can see it was not ‘untrained’ Officers that were at the centre of most of the most contiverial actions but rather the complete opposite, the supposedly highly trained and specialist Terratorial Support Group Officers.