Back to basics in 6 steps!
1. In many to most cases the crowds that gather are law abiding citizens that are exercising their rights to protest and voice their concerns and beliefs! We all took an oath to Serve and Protect, this means that we also protect these people and their rights.
Understanding this is a crucial part of implementing the New Way!
2. Understanding that a group has a certain behaviour is one thing, but knowing Why it behaves the way it does is where the key lies. A group of any sort is made up of individuals. Individuals with certain behaviours and characteristics. It is important that we truly get this so we are able to use a monitoring skill that can be taught to spot certain players in the field that might have an undesired effect on others.
3. Communication/information is and will always be key to prevention, de-escalation or worst case repressing/contain a situation! It is therefore imperative that we understand How we communicate and if we are truly using the right type of communication to reach our goal of preventing escalation into violence.
4. It is in this communication that we need to change the Tune! Most of our Crowd Control Units are taught a certain way of communicating that frankly has the opposite effect of what we are trying to accomplish.
5. Appearance, visibility or non visible actions should all be altered and redefined. For many studies over the last decades all show that they fail and why they fail. Being faced with this important task, we want to be able to protect our officers best we can. So how do we change and still make sure we ensure the safety of our officers best we can?! I'll tell you and show you if this is all of interest to you.
6. Last but not least...why?! Well, we are living in an age where we as police officers are under constant observation from the public and a great many other organisations. We all know that the public opinion has a strong effect on our government. All ready to judge our every move! We have to operate with integrity, commitment and professionalism. Lets make sure we train well so we won't give them the satisfaction to be able to make bad comments about us!