8 The ‘militarisation’ of public order policing?

The 1970s and 1980s were a period of economic, social and political protest which ‘shook British society to its core’ (Go, 2022, p. 655). This unrest was perceived to be a genuine, radical threat to the stability of the country and the functioning of the state. This perception, along with the sustained violence directed at the police in some riots, contributed to major shifts in public order policing.

Figure 11: Changes in police riot equipment between 1977 and 1990. Note the improvised use of a dustbin lid in 1977 and the number of officers without specialist equipment at all. [Description: Black and white photograph showing a line of uniformed police officers standing across a tree-lined residential London street. Only one has a riot shield; all the others are using dustbin lids as shields. One officer is missing his helmet, others have no ties.] Source: https://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/news-photo/battle-of-lewisham-south-london-saturday-13th-august-1977-news-photo/903297394?adppopup=true [Description: Black and white photograph showing a line of police officers wearing crash helmets with visors and shields being confronted by a group of protestors with banners reading, for example, 'Pay no poll tax.' The scene is in a London street with a Royal Bank of Scotland building in the background.] Source: https://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/news-photo/police-blocking-off-whitehall-during-a-demonstration-news-photo/79211353?adppopup=true

It has been argued that public order policing in Britain took a ‘paramilitary turn’ during the 1970s and 1980s. Paramilitary in this context means:

It is certainly true that some developments in public order policing fit this description, as the comparison of riot gear in Figure 11 shows. British policing also drew on colonial policing techniques seeking advice from overseas forces including the Hong Kong Police and the Royal Ulster Constabulary.

Key changes made to public order policing included:

• The expansion of the Metropolitan Police’s Special Patrol Group and Police Support Units in other forces, to act as mobile, specialised units in riot situations.
• Development of specialised riot control equipment and more command and control.
• New riot control tactics including use of small squads to move in and pre-emptively arrest ‘ringleaders’ (on the day, or immediately before).
• Advance undercover intelligence gathering and use of stop and search, roadblocks and ‘flooding’ of areas of potential disorder.

These shifts arguably resulted in a more ‘confrontational’ approach to the policing of demonstrations and protests and may have contributed on occasion to the very public order problems they were designed to prevent. Aspects of this progressive ‘militarisation’ of public order policing can be seen by briefly comparing the 1977 ‘Battle of Lewisham’ and the 1981 Moss Side Riot in Liverpool.

The 1977 ‘Battle of Lewisham’ was a violent confrontation between around 500 National Front supporters and approximately 4,000 counter protestors in South London. Around 5,000 police officers were deployed and riot shields were used for the first time when the police came under attack (see Figure 11). Police tactics were mainly aimed at keeping the NF march apart from counter protests. 56 police officers were injured, along with 78 demonstrators.

Figure 12: A policeman with baton drawn stands next to an unconscious protestor by a police van in Manchester, 1981 [Description: Black and white photograph of two police officers in riot helmets with visors. One is moving towards the camera with a raised baton and beside him on the ground is an unconscious man lying face down]. Source: https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/incoming/gallery/1981-moss-side-riots-pictures-9588595

In 1981, large scale disorders broke out in major cities including London, Bristol, Manchester, Liverpool and Birmingham with widespread destruction of property, looting and arson. Hundreds of police and civilians were injured and David Moore, a disabled man, was hit by a police vehicle and killed. Much of the violence was directed at the police with PC Keith Blacklock murdered in London. In Moss Side (Manchester) a police station was besieged and the police response drew on recently developed ‘paramilitary’ tactics and equipment.

The Manchester Evening News reported that:

There were subsequent reports that ‘many policemen in Moss Side in vehicles on 9 July were actively spoiling for trouble’ (Vogler, 1991, p. 150). Mass arrests were made and disorder was eventually quelled via the use of force.

By the time police were required to intervene during the Miners’ Strike of 1984 and the Poll Tax Riot of 1990, public order policing looked and felt very different from the ‘traditional’, civilian model publicly lauded in the later 1960s. New tactics were codified in ACPO’s Public Order Manual of Tactical Operations (1983) and although these tactics could, on occasion, deter protestors from violence they could also make violence against the police more likely.

The ramifications of this new ‘militarised’ response to public order maintenance would be worked through in the early decades of the twenty-first century.