7 The evolution of public order policing in the mid-twentieth century
By 1945, the police were firmly responsibly for public order policing in Britain with the Metropolitan Police now deploying powers given by the 1936 Public Order Act. While the immediate post-Second World War period was an exceptionally orderly decade, the later 1950s and 1960s were still marred by occasional public violence and disorder.
The Notting Hill Riots of 1958 and the Middlesbrough Riot of 1961, for example, might both be described as ‘race riots’.
Activity 4 The Notting Hill riots, 1958
Watch the short British Pathé news reel below which was filmed during the 1958 Notting Hill riots. Note in particular the mention of the police. How proactive do they seem? Is there a high police presence?
A short news reel film by Pathe News covering the 1958 Notting Hill riots sparked by attacks on the Afro-Caribbean community. Note – this might be too expensive to use, in which case I’ll come up with another activity. [Description: The title of the film is ‘Shameful episode. The black and white shows crowds of white men, women and children outside a shop called ‘Bloomfields’ and the arrival of a large black police car. The film then moves on to show more peaceful scenes with pedestrians walking along the roads, a ‘rag and bone’ man with horse and cart before focusing on broken windows in houses, groups of white women standing chatting, pieces of broken railing lying on the pavement. Finally 2 uniformed police officers on the beat walk passed a group of white youths]. Source: https://www.britishpathe.com/asset/187381/
Discussion
The police seem to be maintaining quite a low profile. You have already learned about attitudes to the arrival of workers from the British colonies in Week 3 and many thousands settled in the then poor district of Notting Hill in London. Their arrival was deeply resented in the traditionally white community with Sir Oswald Mosely (seen in Figure 9) stirring racial tensions by campaigning in the area. Gangs of ‘Teddy boys’ began attacking members of the Black community. The police were slow to react which caused resentment among the Black community. They felt the police did not support them and took it upon themselves to defend their homes and businesses. This, then, is an example, where members of the community felt let down by the lack of police intervention.
The 1960s also witnessed political protest, which prompted some significant improvements in public order policing. A good example of the changes which took place is provided by the comparison of two demonstrations which took place in London in March and October 1968.
Figure 10: Protestors and police at an anti-Vietnam War demonstration at the US Embassy in London, 17 March, 1968. Note the lack of specialist ‘riot gear’, bar the use of mounted police. [Description: Black and white photograph showing a large group of uniformed police officers, some mounted on horses, at the edge of Grosvenor Square near to the US embassy in London. Some police are gathered round a bearded man lying on the pavement with his eyes closed and dishevelled clothing.] Source: https://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/news-photo/demonstration-in-trafalgar-square-against-us-involvement-in-news-photo/1450450144?adppopup=true
In March 1968 around 10,000 people attended an anti-Vietnam War peace rally in Trafalgar Square before marching to the US Embassy. Police attempts to contain and disperse the crowd led to a pitched battle, latter dubbed the ‘Battle of Grosvenor Square’. Around 145 police officers required medical treatment and 86 civilians were injured. The use of mounted police undoubtedly contributed to confrontation between police and public. An eye-witness recollection of events on the day, along with some video footage, can be found in this article [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] moved from footnote.
Senior officers later admitted in private that their riot control plans had been ‘outdated and insufficient’ (St John, 2024, p. 274) with most officers involved on the day having little, if any, training in riot control.
Over the course of 1968, a range of different pressure groups continued organising protests across Europe and it was clear to the authorities that:
… a greater acceptance of confrontation among some protest groups [...] had led others to see strategic benefits in public displays of disorder.
The police therefore made rapid changes to public order policing techniques, including:
- improvements to standard crowd control tactics (for example, using double cordons)
- public order training courses
- greater use of Special Patrol Groups (the Special Patrol Group (1961–1987) was a Metropolitan Police Unit which provided centrally-directed, mobile capacity to combat disorder, crime and terrorism beyond the capacity of local divisions) moved from footnote in public order situations
- improvements in command and control, including the use of live CCTV to monitor demonstrations.
A later demonstration on 27 October 1968, attended by around 50,000 people, passed largely without incident. It was represented as a triumph for the police with a report by the NCCL (often critical of the police) concluding:
… the causes of friction from the police side were removed and the general strategy was [...] more successful to promoting good order.
This success owed a lot to increasing sophistication in intelligence gathering (within Special Branch), improved command oversight and advanced crowd control. But even greater public order challenges lay ahead in the 1970s and 1980s.