Police Information Guide

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An introduction to how the police are structured, especially for 'public order' situations; the command hierarchy; common tactics and police methodology.

Structure

Cops on demos are graded on how much public order training they’ve had.

Shield trained I
- train regularly at 'riot city' in Hounslow.

Shield trained II
- most Territorial Support Group (TSG - riot pigs) fall into this category.

Shield trained III
- do an annual refresher course

Types I & II tend to be wearing caps, boilersuits and have shoulder numbers starting with 'U'. They frequently 'forget' to wear their numbers, or 'accidentally' cover them over with gaffer tape. They also frequently wear a 'face-warmer' which often ends up covering almost their entire face, making them unfortunately difficult to identify. The are generally the police who are too stupid to be allowed to talk to the public (they hit them instead).

Type III tend to wear old fashioned helmets, numbers starting with 2 letters denoting their station. For example, CX106 (Charing Cross).

The basic unit of organisation is the 'serial' of 1 inspector, 3 sergeants and 18 constables. Mobile reserves are carried in vans, 3 vans to a serial, often labelled with the serial number and followed by letters a, b, c, eg serial 629b.

Also present will be the public order intelligence unit who have:

'Magnet' audio recording teams
'Oracle' video recording teams
'Forward Intelligence Teams' (FIT) often with a civilian still photographer, who follow known protesters.

Ranks

The Met has 11 ranks each with a different shoulder badge. The Command structure is Gold, Silver, Bronze.

Gold - is in overall command as is based at an operations centre (Typically a DAC or Commander on major demos)

Silver - is senior command on the ground (Chief Superintendent)

Bronzes - are subordinate ground commanders (Chief Super / Chief Inspector)

Sub-Bronzes - may be on big demos to control a few serials (squads of cops)

Responsibility for public order in the Met rests with the Assistant Commissioner (territorial policing )

Strategy

Since the increase of public order events in the 70’s British police strategy has been refined to contain rather than disperse protesters. They aim to surround crowds to give them time to identify those they want to arrest, send snatch squads to get them, then gradually let people out relying on tiredness and despondency to have drained the crowds energy. Watch for early signs of this about to happen.

Huddles of senior officers conferring
Cops getting out of vans
Appearance of cops in riot boilersuits (from far off look for white, orange or yellow shoulder patches denoting sergeants, inspectors, chief inspectors)
Any movement of numbers of cops
Any deployment of the mounted branch

Tactics

Initially the cops will form 'single belt lines' holding the cop to their rights belt with right hand while pushing with the left.

If this fails they will take shields and riot helmets from the vans. Full riot gear gives practical immunity to fire and all but the heaviest thrown objects.

Truncheons - there are two types, the PR 24 side arm baton ( aprox. 2 foot by 2 inches made of plastic ) & the ASP which is a 21 inch retractable thin steel rod with a ball bearing on the end. Both hurt. The cops are taught a red, amber, green targeting system for using truncheons, ie arms and legs first, joints & body next and head only as a last resort but they’ve been known to forget.

Watch out for:

Baton Charges - these are rapid advances of around 15 yards, hitting everyone in range, usually followed by a retreat.

Snatch squads - a wedge formation of 6-10 cops will form immediately behind the cop line. They will rush their, usually unsuspecting, victim, knock them down and drag the back behind the police line as quickly as possible.

Horses - the Met has 120 mounted officers and 150 horses, and the City have 10 mounted officers. Horses are often used to back up police lines and to charge if the cops are on the defensive. These tend to be longer than baton charges, often right through the crowd. Their riders have extra long truncheons.

Stealing - the cops often steal banner poles, flags, placards etc, also the cops wisely wear their padding under their riot suits while ripping padding off protesters foolish enough to wear it outside theirs.

Law & Orders

The cops are not too hot on the law, even inspectors only need to get 75% in a four option multiple choice test to pass their exam.

No operational policing decision has ever been changed by explaining the law or pointing out the illegality of police actions to cops on a demo.

The cops are very good at taking orders. Sometimes if you’re very lucky you can make them hesitate or pause in a attack by giving a short positive command eg "Get back".

Although ungifted in many areas, cops are cunning and ferocious and their public order tactics are well thought out and effective. Do not underestimate them.

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