ABSTRACT
This chapter explores how law enforcement structures respond to the wide range of public order and public safety challenges they are responsible for managing in their core duty of public protection and maintenance of the peace. Experienced police public order commanders will regularly extol the virtues of robust planning processes and state rather confidently that the success in mitigating group violence in a public order context is ‘all about the planning’ and to some extent this is true. Police Commanders at Strategic and Tactical level will place emphasis on this intelligence assessment, with the Gold Commander setting out their “Intelligence Requirement” at an early stage in the planning process to help inform the shape and “feel” of the operational response. The swift and effective management and resolution of collective violence by the police in public order terms is a central function in the maintenance of the Queens Peace.
