Police criticised over protests

POLICE risk losing public confidence if they do not change how they manage protests, the British police watchdog said yesterday.

Chief Inspector of Constabulary, Denis O’Connor, said senior officers were too focused on dealing with disorder, and not enough on allowing peaceful protest.

Public order training and tactics were “inadequate for the modern day”, he said, in his review of the G20 protests in central London.

The report found officers were too interested in whether protests were lawful or not, instead of focusing on allowing peaceful demonstrations.

Some officers policing G20 were not sufficiently aware of human rights laws, he said, and he criticised police use of containment to pen in demonstrators on the day Ian Tomlinson died, calling it “inconsistent”.

O’Connor called on the Association of Chief Police Officers to carry out a wide-ranging review of tactics and training for officers dealing with protesters.

The review should include a medical assessment of the damage done by shields and batons carried by riot police, he said.

In future, containment should be used more flexibly, and vulnerable or distressed people should be allowed out, he said.

O’Connor said the changes needed to be made as soon as possible to “meet the challenges of the 21st century”, and would be especially important for the Olympic Games in 2012.