Police tactics at protests

Police have a great deal of discretionPower to choose whether to do or not to do a certain thing, e.g. investigate a complaint. in the way they deal with protests. Police do not mechanically enforceTo make people obey (a law, the terms of an agreement, etc). Also: enforceability. the law and will often ignore minor breaches of the law.

Enforcing the law actually makes up a small proportion of police action at protests. Police are also aware of civil disobedience and its use as a political tactic and will sometimes not arrestTo take into custody. to undermine the political meaning generated by arrestTo take into custody. and subsequent court and legal processes.

Police often play a careful and strategic role at protests, which is most often designed to maintain control (Alderson 1998; Della Porta and Reiter 1998). Having said that, police often make mistakes, misinterpret the situation and choose highly ineffective tactics.

There are four very common police approaches to controlling protest actions: