Reading the riot act: An analysis of six official inquiries into the use of excessive force by police at protest demonstrations

Public events such as protest demonstrations can lead to violent confrontations between protesters and police. This study attempts to identify factors that may lead to the excessive use of force by police at protest demonstrations. A review of the literature revealed nine factors that may influence police behaviour: the presence of aggressive and violent protesters, high levels of officer stress, high levels of officer aggression, a loss of professional self-control, the influence of personal problems and the attitudes of individual officers, the influence of peer relations and the police sub-culture, insufficient and inadequate supervision, inadequate training and equipment, and insufficient and inaccurate communication, information, and planning. An analysis was conducted of six investigative reports of alleged excessive use of force by police at protest demonstrations. The results indicate that the predominant factor that led to the excessive use of force was insufficient and inaccurate communication, information, and planning by police and security personnel. Limitations of this thesis include the small number of official inquiry reports available; the subjective nature of coding, scoring, and ranking of factors; and the possibility that not all the factors that were identified in this study were considered by investigators of each of the six events as having contributed to the excessive use of force. The general purpose of this study is to provide police with comprehensive information regarding elements of policing which affect their actions when in crowd control or protest situations