INCREASED PARAMILITARISM IN POLICING

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INCREASED PARAMILITARISM IN POLICING

• Mike Kilroe
• April 2008

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INCREASED PARAMILITARISM IN POLICING

• OUTLINE
• THE CONDITIONS FOR CONSENSUS POLICING
• POLICING PUBLIC ORDER
• COLONIALISM AND POLICING
• POLICING IN NORTHERN IRELAND
• POLICING DISORDER
• INCREASE IN PARAMILITARISM INCREASES RESTRAINT
• CRITICAL RESPONSE
• THE AMERICAN CONNECTION
• THE FUTURE ROLE FOR POLICING

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THE CONDITIONS FOR CONSENSUS POLICING

• Consensual policing has been the aspirational
  norm for post-war liberal democracies (Mclaughlin
  2007)
• Police had paternalistic relationship with the
  working class- The bobby on the beat
• Police as court of appeal in many matters
• The Dixonian police force was successful at
  catching criminals and controlling crime in this
  period because of the strong communal social
  controls and active community support and
  information (Taylor 1981)

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THE CONDITIONS FOR PARAMILITARY POLICING

• Lea and Young 1984 (Left Realism)
• Consensus policing collapses in Britains inner
  cities as a result of dramatic changes in the
  1960s/1970s
• Established working class communities are
  fragmented
• New Commonwealth immigrant communities were
  established with different value systems
• Increased unemployment and deprivation producing
  rising crime
• Criminal youth sub-cultures
• All undermine the conditions for consensual
  policing
• Respectable society/working class demanding
  tougher policing as response
• A move to more aggressive styles of policing

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THE CONDITIONS FOR PARAMILITARY POLICING

• Collective resistance to police in specific
  neighbourhoods
• Response was a more militaristic approach to
  policing
• Producing a vicious circle
• Confidence in police collapsing
• Alienated communities
• Plus the rise in disaffected groups in society-
  Anti- nuclear/Anti- War/ Environment/ Animal
  Rights/Anti-Racist etc

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INCREASED PARAMILITARISM IN POLICING

• What is paramilitarism?
• On policing in the 1980s
• Armed with new powers/equipment and co-ordinated
  on a national basis to combat disorder the police
  appear unfamiliar. Less part of society and more
  apart from it (Brewer et al 1996)
• Three main contributors to the debate in the UK
• P.A.J. Waddington
• T. Jefferson
• A. Hills

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CLAIMING THE MORAL AUTHORITY

• Policing is morally ambiguous and profoundly so.
  The police officer occupies a unique position in
  society he or she is licensed by other citizens
  to exercise coercion over them. The police
  officer is duty bound to act in ways that would
  be exceptional, or downright illegal if they were
  undertaken by anyone else (P.A.J. Waddington
  1999)

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CLAIMING THE MORAL AUTHORITY

• Police officers are monopolists of force in
  civil society (Bittner 1990)
• A police officer may ask for the compliance of
  other citizens, but if they refuse he is able to
  compel compliance to a degree that virtually
  every other citizen is denied (P.A.J. Waddington
  1999)

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POLICING PUBLIC ORDER

• Riot Control Militarisation
• A historical overview
• The distinction between an enemy and fellow
  citizens seems to have been one of the
  considerations that motivated the establishment
  of a police force in the early nineteenth
  century (P. A. J. Waddington 1999)

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POLICING PUBLIC ORDER

• In modern liberal states the military has
  progressively disengaged from a domestic public
  order role leaving the police in that role
• The new police in 1829 would not carry pistols
  and sabres. Only a truncheon and a rattle
• Peel was determined that the new force should not
  be militaristic unlike continental models

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THE BRITISH EMPIRE

• Colonialism and Policing
• Colonial police forces shared many of the
  characteristics of an army of occupation
  (Anderson 1991)
• The suppression of subject populations
• Deployment of weaponry
• Housed in barracks

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COLONIALISM AND POLICING

• South Africa
• South African police under apartheid utilised
  assault rifles, machine guns, mortars against a
  non-white population (Brewer 1994)

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POLICING IN NORTHERN IRELAND

• The Paramilitary model
• During the early years of the troubles the army
  took primary role in security
• By mid-1970s the government introduce new policy
  of police primacy
• Army in subordinate role to police (Johnston
  2000)
• RUC becomes more paramilitarised
• Ulster as testing Ground for a whole range of
  paramilitary techniques (Jefferson 1990)
• Later transferred to Britain
• Mrs Thatcher refers to murderers and gunmen
• The activities of conventional criminals

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POLICING IN NORTHERN IRELAND

• Gerry Adams in 1996 on the nationalist protest of
  early 1970s they (police) were coming in
  aggressively looking for trouble, seeking to fly
  the flag in classic military fashion
• The RUC and shoot to kill
• John Stalker uncovers evidence of Special Branch
  inclination to shoot suspects without
  attempting to make arrests

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POLICING IN NORTHERN IRELAND

• In 1998 the Independent Commission on Policing in
  Northern Ireland set up by government looking at
  structure of RUC, human rights, public order
  policing and accountability etc
• Result in 2001 is the Police Service of Northern
  Ireland
• Via Police and Northern Ireland Act 2000

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POLICING DISORDER IN CONTEMPORARY BRITAIN

• Writers such as Hills (1995) argue that public
  order policing in this country has become
  noticeably authoritarian/paramilitary during the
  last 25 years
• Likewise, Notham (1988) had suggested the
  development of a colonial style of public order
  policing that had become militarised (Hong Kong
  model)
• Thus fostering the view of the public not as
  citizens but as a rebellious subject population
  to be controlled
• Jefferson (1993) such changes symptomatic of
  declining health of democracy
• HOW VALID ARE SUCH VIEWS?

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POLICING DISORDER IN CONTEMPORARY BRITAIN

• Police always involved in conflict policing
• Industrial unrest
• Marches/demos
• Urban unrest
• Make-up of such conflicts not changed in past 200
  years
• BUT what has changed (past 20/25 years) are the
  tactics and equipment used by police

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POLICING DISORDER IN CONTEMPORARY BRITAIN

• Gone are the days of custodian helmets/dustbin
  lids as protection
• Now we see male/female officers having access to
• Purpose made riot helmets
• Body armour
• Flame resistant overalls
• Special boots
• Short and midi-shields
• Specialist batons
• CS gas
• Protected vehicles

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POLICING DISORDER IN CONTEMPORARY BRITAIN

• Tactics
• Clear ACPO endorsed guidelines re organisation
  and tactics
• Early resolution tactics to ensure attendance at
  conflict early/ the dispersal of
  crowds/prevention of escalation
• Specialist units
• Specialist firearms teams
• snatch squads
• Rapid entry teams

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INCREASE IN PARAMILITARISM INCREASES POLICE
RESTRAINT

• P.A.J Waddington a major writer in this area
• An orthodox view
• More than a mere style of policing
• The grafting of military command to civil
  police
• Increase in equipment and tactics is inevitable
• An organised chain of command
• Gold Silver and Bronze tiers
• Strategy meetings/contingency planning
• Computerised special operation control rooms
• Special squads

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INCREASE IN PARAMILITARISM INCREASES POLICE
RESTRAINT

• Such tactics and operation actually increases
  restraint by the police
• This is due to the increase in training, tactics,
  efficiency etc
• Early resolution decrease injuries to
  police/protestors
• Police officers less likely to succumb to
  individual acts of indiscipline
• Senior officers more accountable for the actions
  of those under their command
• Traditional tactics encourages indiscipline in
  individual officers
• Whereas, water cannon/CS irritants more
  consistent with minimum force
• More accurate technology produces reduction in
  random injuries
• Militarisation does not mean that citizenship is
  denied

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INCREASE IN POLICE RESTRAINT?

• Compared to late 19th century civil disorder in
  contemporary Britain has decreased
• Trade union power undermined
• In London alone there are three major protest
  demos per week
• Mere presence of equipped police without force is
  sufficient to normalise a crowd (see Foucault)
• Police achieve control by guile
• Public Order Act 1986 states that marches/demos
  must be planned a week before the event
• Protest can only take place within the parameters
  set by the state and its agents (police)

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CRITICAL RESPONSE TO WADDINGTONS VIEWS

• Tony Jefferson The Case against Paramilitary
  Policing 1990
• The application of quasi-military training,
  equipment, philosophy and organisation to
  questions of policing
• Military discipline cannot simply be transferred
  to the police without altering the nature of
  policing
• The increase in paramilitarism (weaponry /tactics
  etc) as an increase in state authoritarianism

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CRITCAL RESPONSE TO WADDINGTONS VIEWS

• Paramilitary policing amplifies violence and
  disorder
• A self - fulfilling element
• Colonial style policing as symptomatic of
  declining health of democracy
• Part of a response to quelling dissension from
  specific groups in society
• The enemy within

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CRITICAL RESPONSE TO WADDINGTONS VIEWS

• Hills (1995)
• Disagrees with Waddington and Jefferson
• She defines paramilitarism as those whose
  training, organisation and control suggest they
  may be usable in support or in lieu of regular
  forces
• BUT police dont function this way
• Command structures are common to every emergency
  service

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CRITICAL RESPONSE TO WADDINGTONS VIEWS

• D Waddington Contemporary Issues in Public
  Disorder 1992
• Met have provided training courses to deal with
  sexism/racism
• BUT police officers are also required to undergo
  training in paramilitary control at Hounslow
  under tuition of super fit instructors who convey
  a militaristic image
• This defeats diversity training

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THE AMERICAN CONNECTION

• Weber 2001
• Over past 20 years Congress has encouraged US
  military to supply intelligence, equipment and
  training to police
• Equipment has included grenade launchers,
  armoured personnel carriers, automatic M16s
• This has created a culture of paramilitarism in
  American police departments
• Paramilitarism threatens civil liberties,
  constitutional norms and the well-being of
  citizens

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THE FUTURE ROLE FOR THE POLICE

• P.A.J. Waddington 1999
• Increase in disaffected groups
• Civil Rights, Animal Rights, Environment, Anti -
  Facism , Food and Agriculture, Globalisation and
  Imperialism, Human Rights, Iraq, Immigration and
  Refugees
• Excluded groups/disaffected groups may have
  little incentive to play by the rules
• Therefore police strategies based on the
  existence of such rules will become redundant

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THE FUTURE ROLE FOR THE POLICE

• The result will be more vigorous enforcement of
  the law
• A drain on police resources
• The increase in private security in protecting
  vested interests from activities of protestors
• Private security companies already played a
  leading role in some of the protests by
  environmentalists against new roads and similar
  developments

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INTERNATIONALLY CO-ORDINATED PROTEST

• Anti-World Trade Organisation protests in Prague,
  Nice, Seattle (2000/2001) London (2003) Scotland
  (2005)
• Protest against influence of global capitalism
• It is important to remember that conventional
  criminals operate outside the moral boundary
• But protestors may be considered the moral equals
  of other citizens
• On TV we increasingly see protestors of all ages
  being dragged away by police officers being
  dragged away by police officers in their riot
  gear
• Eg, China farmers on ITV news

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• South Korea 2001

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• South Korea 2001

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• South Korea 2001

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• South Korea 2001

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• South Korea 2001

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• G8 2005 Gleneagles Scotland

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• G8 2005 Gleneagles Scotland

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• G8 2005 Gleneagles Scotland

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• G8 2005 Gleneagles Scotland

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• Washington DC 2006

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• South Korea 2006 Anti-war protest

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