G20 lessons to benefit from Northern Ireland input

Public order policing in England and Wales could benefit from having Sir Hugh Orde as the new president of the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO), as new guidance is developed to learn lessons from the G20 protests, Policing Minister Vernon Coaker has said.
Speaking to the Joint Committee of Human Rights this week, Mr Coaker said there was much that could be learnt from the way protests are policed in Northern Ireland and that as outgoing chief constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI), Sir Hugh’s experience will be valuable to ACPO guidance currently being revised. The PSNI polices a large number of public order situations every year and in particular during the summer marching season.
Mr Coaker also pointed to a human rights working group which will look at the importance of considering human rights when handling events such as demonstrations, as this too is being led by an officer from the PSNI.
The G20 protests will provide lessons for the police, Mr Coaker said. It is important for people to come forward with any grievances they have so that they can be investigated and learning can be taken from them. Problems should not be “hidden under the carpet”, he told the committee.
Overall, however, he said that policing of the G20 protest was successful, other than the issues being investigated by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) and the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC).
“While a number of recent high profile cases seem to present a problem with policing public order, a huge number of protests take place with no controversy and the majority of public order is policed well,” Mr Coaker said.
Policing of protests is an operational responsibility of police and, within this, individual officer discretion is important, Mr Coaker told the committee, as in some cases an officer may wish to choose not to use certain powers available to them based on the situation they are presented with.
“While there is a framework on how to police, it is impossible to lay down every possible scenario that officers might come across and put it into legislation,” he said.
The committee was particularly critical of current ACPO guidelines on containment, saying that it must be made clear that it should only be used when it is appropriate and proportionate.
Mr Coaker said the guidelines are currently being rewritten to reflect recommendations that have been made, but that the school of only using tactics when appropriate and proportionate was embedded throughout policing.
He conceded that the permeability of cordons is an issue that needs to be addressed, particularly following reports of blanket containment at G20. It is reasonable for officers, however, to prevent people passing through, Mr Coaker added.
He said if containment is expected to be used, issues such as medical care and the availability of toilets and water are important and should be secured beforehand where possible.
How police communicate with protesters while they are in a cordon has been raised as an issue at previous meetings and Mr Coaker agreed that this too needs to be addressed, looking beyond the current loud hailer.
“Communication between police and protesters is fundamental and we need to look at how to do it properly,” Mr Coaker said. There is no “magic wand answer” to how communication between protesters and police prior to demonstrations can be improved. “It is not helpful when police and protest groups try and communicate and can’t. The only way to get round it is to try harder,” he said.
When questioned on the requirement of officers to have their identification number visible, Mr Coaker said he didn’t think it necessary to “go straight to a legislative solution”, as the minority who conceal or fail to wear their identification would probably continue to do so, but that to wear identification is currently an expectation of all officers.