Public order review

Report: 6
Date: 26 April 2007
By: AC Central Operations, on behalf of The Commissioner

Summary

A Review of Public Order policing, commissioned in October 2006, has been carried out by CO11, Public Order Branch, on behalf of the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS). There were five strands to the Review: Tactics; Advanced Public Order Selection; Intelligence, Tasking, Processes and Costs; Structured Debriefing and Community Tension monitoring. The objectives of the Review are shown in Appendix 1. Consultation with the MPA has taken place through the Chair, Len Duvall, and regular meetings with members Rachel Whittaker and Jenny Jones. This report summarises the findings of the Review and sets out proposals for future action.

A. Recommendation

That

1. the Authority notes the contents of the report and, in particular, the main finding of the Review that the current Public Order model is fit for purpose;
2. the Authority approves the continuation of work into the five strands and the associated recommendations; and
3. the Authority sponsors a debate into the deployment of specialist equipment.

B. Supporting information

Background

1. As a major capital city, London attracts many events, some of them world class in nature. These are a mixture of ceremony and pageant, sporting and cultural, as well as demonstrations, protests and marches. In the last few years, London has averaged about 6,000 events a year that have required one sergeant and six constables or more to police. The majority of these events are planned and commanded locally and most will have required the support of officers from other boroughs to be successful (such support is known as 'aid'). In the last 12 months, about 300 large-scale events have been planned and commanded through the Public Order Branch, CO11. In the same period there were about 500 professional football matches and about 100 other sporting events, all of which will have required some form of aid.

2. The MPS employs a system of Gold, Silver and Bronze Commanders to provide Command and Control at the strategic, tactical and operational levels respectively. There are currently 110 officers of Chief Inspector rank and above who form the Senior Officers Public Order Cadre and who are trained to perform these roles. The 750 officers in the Territorial Support Group (TSG) provide the highest level of public order trained officers at Level 1. In addition, there are 3,500 officers trained to Level 2 public order standard, drawn mainly from the borough environment. Level 1 and 2 officers receive regular training and are provided with full public order personal protective equipment (PPE). All remaining uniform officers receive basic Level 3 training on joining the MPS, but currently no training beyond that. Level 3 officers are not issued with PPE for public order. Any event, no matter how small, that deploys Level 1 or Level 2 trained officers must have a member of the Senior Officers Public Order Cadre on the command team.

3. The planning for all events follows the same process. On being notified of an event, CO11 or the local borough, where appropriate, will make contact with the event organisers. This dialogue and co-operation is essential and ensures that the vast majority of events take place safely and peacefully in a manner acceptable to all concerned. It should be pointed out, however, that there are a very small number of events where there are no identifiable organisers and a number of spontaneous events that have to be policed where organisers do not always come forward. Once an event has been notified, a police Gold will be appointed who will set the strategy, taking into account the intelligence and any threat relating to the event. Silver will then draw up a tactical plan to turn the strategy into action. This will be done in consultation with the Bronze Commanders appointed for the event who will perform a mixture of geographic and functional roles, such as traffic and crime. In certain events, a Security Co-ordinator will be appointed who will advise Gold on the security arrangements required, particularly if VIPs are attending. In all events, a media strategy will be drawn up. Following the event, a debrief will be held and feedback sought from the event organisers.

4. The Public Order Branch are acutely aware that every officer taken on aid to an event in Central London is an abstraction from borough policing. One of the key drivers behind the Review is to examine our processes with a view to reducing the aid commitment, whilst still maintaining an effective and appropriate response to the event. This work started before the Review commenced and the last calendar year has seen the number of Constable days between January and December reduced from 201,525 in 2005 down to 159,344 in 2006; this amounts to a reduction of around 21% (Appendix 2). In that same period, the number of events policed has risen by 10% and is likely to continue increasing with the opening of the new Wembley Stadium, which is likely to bring an average of 30 large-scale events per year into London. The MPS are further constrained in that they can only charge commercial organisations for those officers policing the inside of the stadium or event arena. This is now the subject of a separate review. In some of these areas, the MPS is restricted by regulation and case law, but we need to be more robust in pursuing full cost recovery, particularly as there is a growing expectation among some agencies that the MPS should provide its services free. The MPS has taken full account of, and is adhering to, the MPA policy on cost recovery.

5. The MPS is fully committed to freedom of speech and the right of demonstrators to lawfully protest. However, we also have a duty to ensure that the machinery of government and democracy is allowed to function uninterrupted and, therefore, have to put an appropriate level of order and control around all events. In the majority of cases the organisers are co-operative and the events pass off without incident. However, there are occasions when disorder occurs that can lead to violence. At such times, the MPS is committed to restoring order swiftly and robustly, protecting the public, demonstrators and its own officers. To do this, the MPS employs tactics and equipment that have stood the test of time and are approved and validated by ACPO. As well as their personal protective equipment, Level 1 and 2 officers have a choice of using either an asp or an acrylic baton. In addition, at certain events where serious violence is anticipated, specially trained officers using attenuated energy projectiles (AEP), formerly known as baton guns, are available to support them. However, these weapons have never been used in public order situations in mainland Britain.

6. The MPS Public Order tactics came under scrutiny in September 2004, following violent confrontations at the Countryside Alliance demonstration in Parliament Square. The subsequent Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) report into the disturbances recommended that the MPS review the existing tactical options, with consideration being given to all equipment now available. This was one of the key drivers behind the Public Order Review, along with the issue of aid abstractions. In addition, recent high profile demonstrations and the actions of individuals or small groups at localised protests, have highlighted a complex dynamic emerging in London, built around a potentially volatile mix of issues, including representation, freedom of speech, public demonstration and religious/political viewpoints. This has served to underline the desire of the MPS to have a clear community mandate for the use of its public order tactics and for community intelligence to feature more prominently in our planning.

7. Public Order policing has a wide remit. The Public Order Branch, CO11, plans all major events in the capital, an average of almost one a day; they co-ordinate the resources for those events, both in terms of officers, staff and logistical support such as vehicles and catering; they co-ordinate resources from the MPS when we are required to play our part in the National Mobilisation Plan; Strategic Training Unit manages the Senior Officers' Cadre and regularly runs contingency training for boroughs and other units; the Public Order Intelligence Unit supplies accurate and timely intelligence for ceremonial events, demonstrations and football matches, managing forward intelligence officers and evidence gatherers; they also manage the post-incident investigation, including preparation for trial; the branch carries out all public order training, mainly at Gravesend but also at Hendon for new recruits, including specialist training such as public order driving, baton guns and rope access; the unit is responsible for all officer safety training and the maintenance and procurement of officer safety equipment such as body armour; the unit also maintains and deploys Mounted Branch and the operational support units of Dogs, Helicopters and Boats. All this has continued on a daily basis as the Review has been carried out.

The Review

8. The Public Order Model has served London well for many years and most of it continues to be fit for purpose. However, the Metropolitan Police continues to evolve and borough policing, in particular, has moved on rapidly. It was felt timely to review aspects of the Public Order Model to ensure that they fully met the needs of the Metropolitan Police in the 21st Century. The Review, therefore, consisted of the following five strands:

• Tactics
• Advanced Public Order selection
• Intelligence and tasking, processes and costs
• Structured debriefing
• Community tension monitoring

9. A full list of the detailed recommendations from each strand can be found in Appendix 3.

Tactics

10. An experienced Public Order trainer carried out the tactical review of every aspect of our current tactical options. This work included an evaluation of how training delivery could be developed to match the demands that will arise over the next five years. Each area of activity was audited for compliance with current manuals of guidance and with relevant legislation, including the Human Rights Act 1998 and the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974.

11. The tactical review concluded that the tactics and equipment available to the MPS are fit for purpose. However, it identified that at the top of the range of the continuum of force, the MPS is currently limited in both the tactics and equipment for keeping crowds at a distance. In the 2004 Parliament Square scenario, this led to demonstrators quickly confronting the police toe-to-toe. Officers then only had recourse to their personal issue batons in order to defend themselves. Because of their close proximity to the demonstrators, the officers were not in a position to strike at arms and legs and were consequently only able to strike at heads to protect themselves.

12. There are two main avenues that can be explored to help keep crowds at bay and minimise injuries. The first is through new legislation introducing powers to take pre-emptive action to prevent confrontation. Some dialogue has already occurred with the Attorney General regarding religious demonstrations and this needs to be continued into other Public Order legislation such as the Public Order Act. The second avenue is to explore equipment and tactics. The MPS is aware that water cannon and the other devices listed in the following paragraph is an emotive subject and we are not making a case in this report to gain authority for their use. However, the Public Order Branch believes that the time is right for an in-depth debate on such equipment.

13. Through Commander Public Order, the MPS has been a long-standing member of the 'Patten' Group, looking at public order equipment. This includes items such as water cannon, discriminating irritant projectiles, attenuated energy projectiles and long-range acoustic devices, all of which are designed to keep crowds safely at a distance. Water cannon are approved by the Home Office and ACPO and have been used to considerable effect in Northern Ireland. In terms of the continuum of force, they sit below batons, AEPs and other projectile devices and they can be used in many different configurations, including the use of a fine mist to deter sit-down protests. The continuum of force is a graduated scale moving up in stages from zero to six. Where zero represents normal policing in a peaceful environment, six represents serious disorder, possibly in a number of locations across the MPS. In the major European countries that use water cannon, other than demonstrators becoming wet, there are no known fatalities or major injuries. They are less likely to cause injury than asps or batons and sit around half way on the continuum of force.

Advanced Public Order Selection

14. The Advanced Public Order Cadre is essential to public order policing in the MPS as these are the men and women who set the values and leadership in this demanding area. The current Cadre system has been in existence since 1990, with few changes. The Review identified some areas for improvement, but generally recommended few alterations to the current practice. However, It does recommend giving enhanced training and support to the Cadre and ensuring that they are kept up-to-date with legislative changes and good practice.

15. The one area of concern that must be addressed is the current lack of female and black and minority ethnic officers of Superintendent rank and above on the Advanced Public Order Cadre. At Chief Inspector rank, we are proportionately represented by female officers on the Cadre, but under-represented by officers with a black and minority ethnic background. However, it will take a number of years until these officers begin to get promoted and the MPS is in a position to redress this imbalance in the higher ranks. As in all other areas of policing, it is essential that our Public Order Cadre is as representative as possible and the Review recommends that we continue to work closely with HR to identify opportunities to redress this balance.

Intelligence and tasking, processes and costs

16. An assessment of the Public Order Crime Unit and Intelligence Unit has taken place. The Review has found that within the current resource allocation, each unit is functioning adequately in terms of delivering its core functions. However, areas for improvement have been identified around the analytical capacity and capability of the Intelligence Unit. As a consequence, a proposal has been put forward to increase the number of analysts and enhance their skill levels. The Intelligence Unit is structurally well placed and has the appropriate processes to work effectively with the new MPS Intelligence Bureau. The Crime Unit is functioning effectively in terms of reactive investigation and has had some significant successes recently, particularly the cartoon protests. However, it has very limited proactive capacity and the unit will require three additional members of staff. The team should be increased from its current establishment of one Detective Chief Inspector, one Detective Sergeant and one Detective Constable by the addition of three Detective Constables.

17. Much of the work in this strand has centred on reducing central aid abstractions from boroughs. Public Order Branch has put in place a number of measures to reduce aid and have identified further opportunities for efficiency savings. The main strands of activity involve the briefing of event commanders, assessing of resourcing levels and the development of a resource-setting template. Another important initiative is the development of the Event Review Steering Group, set up to review all major annual public order and ceremonial events to ascertain whether resourcing levels are set at an efficient level. This group also makes recommendations as to how resourcing might be set more efficiently for the future of these and other events. This work is particularly important, given the anticipated growth in events which equates to an increase of 15,000 officer days; a rise of 14.3% in the next year. The main events are the opening of Wembley Stadium, the UK stage of the Tour de France and the Red Bull Air Race.

18. This strand also looks specifically at the arrangements for specialist searching in the MPS. We have a number of Inspectors trained as Police Search Advisers (POLSA) and a large pool of constables who are licensed search officers. Originally conceived in the counter?terrorist world, these officers work to security co-ordinators, but are increasingly used by senior investigators for murders, other major crimes and missing person enquiries. An Inspectorate report in 2005 made a number of recommendations to improve the effectiveness of our search arrangements, make them more cost-effective and reduce the burden on boroughs, from which the majority of staff are drawn. The recommendations include the creation of a permanent team and the use of civilian staff in this role.

Structured debriefing

19. Although debriefs are widely used in public order, they tend to be ad hoc and without sufficient structure to gain maximum benefit from them. It is essential that the learning from events is factored back in for future planning if the MPS is to become a learning organisation. The desired outcome of structured debriefing is to support an efficient and effective public order planning process. This will in turn provide a means of improving the way we share corporate learning by feeding the product back to the command team. Structured debriefs are now in place for all major events and have been used recently for the London Marathon, Tour of Britain 2006, New Year's Eve and Trooping the Colour.

Community tension monitoring

20. Recent demonstrations against the Iraq war and the Danish cartoon protests have served to highlight the need for the MPS to have a strong community mandate to carry out its public order work. There is also a need for improved community intelligence to enable us to engage with communities and ‘police-out’ potential problems before disorder occurs. Whilst community relations are strong on borough, it was apparent from the Review that the public order world will need to do more in this field. This strand involves an ambitious piece of work centring on three boroughs and working together with Professor Ted Cantle (Community Cohesion Institute) and the Communities Together Strategic Engagement Team of the MPS. As part of this work, multi?agency teams will be formed to receive and analyse a broad range of tension information, together with analytical documents, in order to produce multi?agency strategies intended to remove the causes of tension. In the longer term, the aim is to see improvements in community cohesion indicators. Full details of the plan will be completed and circulated by 1 May 2007.

Risk assessment

21. The MPS has extensive generic risk assessments covering all aspects of policing in the Capital. The risk assessments are available to all and held by the Safety and Health Risk Management Team. They include assessments relating to specific public order roles. Many of the general policing risk assessments are applicable to personnel performing duty at public order events.

22. Every public order event will have a bespoke risk assessment completed for it. A risk assessor is available to the command team throughout the planning process and on the day of the event to ensure that any changes to the intelligence and policing arrangements are still catered for by the risk assessment.

Conclusion

23. The Review found that the current Public Order model is largely fit for purpose and a significant proportion of the internal issues have already been addressed. In addition, the Review identified several areas that need to be refreshed in order to bring them up-to-date (for full details see Appendix 3). The next steps will be based on close consultation with the MPA on several key issues: the need to examine new tactics and equipment at the higher end of the range of force; the need to be more sympathetic to the needs of boroughs and, in particular, abstractions from front line policing; the need to have a strong community mandate for public order policing and a more sensitive model of community intelligence. This work will give the MPS a strong Public Order model for the 21st Century.

C. Race and equality impact

22. All five strands have taken into account the Human Rights Act, Sex Discrimination Act, Race Discrimination Act, Disability Discrimination Act, Age Discrimination Act, as well as Health and Safety guidance. The new Public Order model will better serve the people of London and all those who come into the Capital to celebrate or demonstrate.

D. Financial implications

23. The MPS is committed to making savings of at least £1 million in the Public Order aid budget. This could be offset by the potential increase in aid for the coming year, which could see an additional 15,000 officer days at a cost of £1.58 million. The working to community cohesion will cost £70,000, which has been funded by the Diversity and Citizen Focus Directorate, CO11 Public Order Branch and the Department of Communities and Local Government. Full costings will accompany all submissions for new staff or equipment.

E. Background papers

None

F. Contact details

Report author: Commander R Broadhurst QPM, MPS

For more information contact:

MPA general: 020 7202 0202
Media enquiries: 020 7202 0217/18

Appendix 1

Objectives of the Public Order Review

The aim of the Review is to ensure that the Public Order structures in the Metropolitan Police Service meet the needs of the organisation in the modern context.

The objectives will be to review public order policies, tactics, equipment and procedures to ensure:

• They are understood by, and acceptable to, the communities we police, are cost-effective and deliver best value.
• They are geared to giving the best service to boroughs and other internal users.
• They are compliant with the National Intelligence Model and build upon the new intelligence and tasking structures of the MPS.
• They provide a full range of tactics and associated equipment available to meet any public order situation (now and in the build-up to the Olympics).
• They meet the needs of the Met Modernisation Programme and the new structure of the MPS.

The work was undertaken in five strands:

• Tactics
• Advanced Public Order selection
• Intelligence and Tasking, processes and costs
• Structured debriefing
• Community tension monitoring

Appendix 2

Officer days used for aid

Appendix 3

Public order review recommendations

Each strand of work was headed by a Superintendent from CO11 Public Order Branch and is accompanied by comprehensive documentation. The recommendations shown here relate to the final report from each strand.

1. Tactics

1.1 Establish protocols identifying what variations of PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) can be worn and the appropriate level of authorisation for its use.

1.2 Introduce personal protective equipment specifically designed for use by women.

1.3 Establish the position of all uses of force along the force continuum, identify tiers of control to reflect that position.

1.4 That resilience in the inspector rank within the AEP (Attenuating Energy Projectile, formerly referred to as a 'baton round') role is addressed as a matter of urgency.

1.5 Review evidence gatherer and front line medic operational responses.

1.6 Review public order instructor selection and training.

1.7 That consideration is given to altering the role of the TSG (Territorial Support Group) to enable an AEP, disorder suppression role.

1.8 That CS (smoke borne irritant) air launch capability is reviewed.

1.9 That AEP weapon system instructors' courses are evaluated by NCPE (National Centre for Policing Excellence) and validated by the National Firearms Training Curriculum, permitting public order instructors to deliver AEP training.

1.10 That all Senior Officer tactical public order training is reviewed.

1.11 That consideration is given to the continuum of force and how it could be used to determine authorisation levels, responses or assist with post event reviews.

1.12 That the review of MPSTC conducted by CO1 in 2005 is updated and relevant recommendations activated.

1.13 That the desirability of water cannons is reviewed from every perspective.

1.14 That 'LRAD' (long range acoustic device) is formally assessed as a crowd communication process.

1.15 That the cost of transportation of personnel forms part of any overall review of public order training.

1.16 That differing configurations of barrier designs are acquired and trialled, including 'Iron Horse' mobile barriers, plastic mesh fencing and 'step on' crush barriers.

2. Advanced public order cadre selection

2.1 That cadre officers receive documented feedback after events and Public Order Branch actively plans their future development.

2.2 That Public Order Branch HR unit, in conjunction with Central HR, continues to develop positive action systems to encourage under-represented groups to apply for the cadre.

3. Intelligence, tasking, processes and costs

3.1 To develop the analytical capability of the existing post holder.

3.2 To double the number of analysts to two posts, allowing greater capacity to deal with post-event investigations.

3.3 To build a business case that will increase the investigative team by three police officers. This will give the team capacity to adequately deal with post-event enquiries.

3.4 To ensure that all officers within the cadre have been briefed regarding the most effective use of resources when policing events.

3.5 To fully develop and utilise a resource setting template that is commensurate with the risk and threat.

3.6 For events that require less than four PSUs, the on-call CO11 superintendent will be nominated as Gold Commander and will be responsible for ensuring an effective deployment of resources.

3.7 An 'Event Review Steering Group' will assess resources, as described on page 8.

3.8 Negotiations at ACPO level will continue with the aim of rationalising search and security co-ordination functions.

4. Structured de-briefing

4.1 To ensure that structured de-briefing takes place in relation to all significant events in the Capital.

5. Community tension monitoring

5.1 To ensure that, by July 2007, we have developed a sophisticated and integrated framework to improve the understanding of community dynamics so that we can anticipate and plan for future community tensions.

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