ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that public order policing is irredeemably political: whether disorder is provoked by political motives is less important than how such disturbances are received politically. It describes the growth in public disorder under the headings of community disorders, leisure-related disorder, protest and disaster for the sake of convenience. Organizational capacity has also been enhanced in reaction to repeated failures to respond adequately to outbreaks of serious public disorder. For instance the United States Department of Defense applies a standard of non-lethality against the 95th percentile male: a low-lethality weapon should not risk killing any man who is not at the margins of physical characteristics. The growth in the police capacity to deal with public disorder has awakened concerns lest Britain acquires by stealth the kind of riot police more closely associated with authoritarian regimes. Legally, public order policing is precarious, since the law is premised on individual culpability, whereas public disorder is a collective phenomenon.
