The policing of protest

Abstract

Police forces help to define the terms of urban conflict by their actions. Police organisations are in turn affected by protest Degrees of repression, predisposition towards negotiation, the extent of police visibility, and national traditions are important variables in styles of protest policing. Recently there has been a convergence in styles with protest policing characterised by under‐enforcement of the law, search for bargaining, and large‐scale information gathering. However, different social actors continue to engender varied police treatment and national differences persist concerning degrees of toleration of law breaking, the extent to which negotiation procedures are formalised and the limits on information collection. These differences are explained by institutional variations, aspects of political culture and the political opportunities which arise from configurations of power represented in lines of conflict between police and protestors. Institutional variables include constitutional variations and features of police organisation, including their militarisation. The rootedness of democratic culture, affects police attitudes. ‘Exclusionary’ national strategies of conflict resolution tend to orient police mainly towards political repression rather than crime fighting. In democracies, protest policing tactics are affected by the ideological make‐up of governments, the balance of power between ‘law and order’ and civil rights coalitions, as well as the presence of the mass media and the way it characterises protest. Police behaviour towards protestors is also influenced by different professional cultures and perceived distinctions between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ protest Reductions in police repression are believed to facilitate the development of social movements. Empirical research is inconclusive. Certain internal dynamics of protest policing seem to produce escalation, while more tolerant policing can institutionalise and even demobilise protest. Protest policing has contradictory effects.