ABSTRACT
Public order incidents represent a prime form of social conflict and the challenges they pose are aggravated by their extreme diversity. They range from ad hoc disturbances and disputes policed by tactical support in small numbers under local command to major set-piece confrontations between organised groups controlled by paramilitary policing. The demands of public order policing have customarily been divided analytically into two broad classes: routine order maintenance, which is practised daily in town centres and other areas where relatively minor public order infractions are apt to occur, and the policing of major disturbances of public order occasioned by industrial disputes and political demonstrations. However, to the latter it is now necessary to add what may be regarded as a hybrid category, the policing of large community-based public events that take place on a regular (usually annual) basis, such as London’s Notting Hill Carnival, the Gay Pride events in London, Leeds, Brighton and elsewhere, music events, such as the Reading Rock Festival and the Glastonbury Festival, and religious gatherings associated with New Age religions (for example, the solstice commemorations at Stonehenge) or with adherents mainly drawn from minority ethnic communities (for example, Eid). It is not that such events have only lately occurred. Fairs, carnivals, and associated disorder and rioting have endured for centuries, although media attention gives a new dimension. However, the main consideration is that the police regard these events as ones that require a full police response.
