ASSOCIATE Magazine FBINAA Q1-2024

Continued from "Civil Unrest and Social Issues", on page 11

deploying to a protest or when we decide to declare a protest an unlawful assembly. We also must consider liability to ourselves and the protestors during these events. We must understand the restrictions and the rights afforded to us that the Constitution places on the police and the public during protests. THE PERCEPTION OF THE MILITARIZATION OF THE POLICE – Once again we must verbally engage the public in conversation, explain to them why, when and the capabilities of sound amplifi cation devices, armored vehicles, overwatch positions, less than lethal equipment, bomb detecting dogs, bullet resistant helmets and bullet resistant vests. Without explanations, the public and the media will be left to interpret their own perceptions as to why we are using this equipment. The right to protest is Constitutionally protected, allowing us to peaceably assemble to voice our disagreement with our government and to exercise our right to freedom of speech. What the public cannot do is participate in violent actions, riots, looting, arson, or violent criminal actions against people and or property. When that happens, the police have a duty to restore public order, to protect lives, to protect the rights of legal protestors, and to arrest violators of the law, regardless of race, color, creed, gender, religious affiliation, political affiliation, sexual orientation, and any other belief you may agree or disagree with. We must remain neu tral in responding and deploying to protests. To quote Sir Robert Peel, “The ability of the police to perform their duties is depen dent upon public approval of police actions”. We must restore the public’s faith, confidence, and trust in our actions. Once this oc curs along with proper training, proper planning, solid intelligence gathering, the proper use of social media, along with addressing police officer health and wellness, and a greater understanding of crowd dynamics, it can all lead to effective, professional, and restrained public order tactics.

from your agency. You can take these relationships you make with community outreach and use that leverage to establish liaisons with protest groups so that you can both work together when a protest occurs, so that the message of the protest is not hijacked by opportunists who wish to engage in violent riotous behavior. Field commanders should also understand that their decisions will affect the community of the people they serve. We must understand that if people are not given the right to protest then eventually it will be like a tea kettle with boiling water that has no way to release the evaporating gas, there will be an explosion. President John F. Kennedy once said, “those who make peaceful revolution impossible, make violent revolution inevitable”. If the government and or the police do not allow peaceful protests to occur, then it is inevitable that violent protest will occur. We must establish those relationships with our community, we do not have to agree with them, but we can understand why they are protest ing, and we can establish healthy conversations with them. SOCIAL MEDIA – You should have a social media presence that enhances your agencies image, enhances your ability to commu nicate with the public and to allow you to receive and disseminate information. Your social media use should help enhance your relationship with community leaders which in turn helps you to expand your communication efforts with the community. These community leaders can help you legitimize your response, your policies, new ordinances, or laws. You can use it to communicate with protestors and or protest leadership, and social media can allow you to address bad rumors or misinformation regarding the protest and your response to said protest. You can also monitor social media to get a better understanding of the crowd’s mood with you and to counter any rhetoric that may lead to the spread of misinformation. CROWD DYNAMICS – A better understanding of the psychology of a crowd is paramount. Understanding the methodology, the demographics, the ideology, the behavior, and the motives of the crowd will allow you to craft plans, policies, and better decisions, when getting ready to mitigate a protest and when meeting with the leaders of protests groups. OFFICER HEALTH AND WELLNESS – Let us not forget the health and well being of officers deployed to protests. When deployed to anti-police protests, officers assigned to these details face tremen dous amounts of stress. You are dealing with individuals who are questioning everything you do, who are angry with your profes sion, and whose thoughts of how you do your job may be radically different with your perception of how policing is done. You may also deal with politicians and media whose opinions of your pro fession may also differ from what you believe your job entails. This can lead to overwhelming amounts of stress along with sleep de privation, fatigue, and poor nutrition from working long hours due to policing these events. So let us not forget to give rest periods to our officers so that they can physically and mentally decompress from long days of keeping the peace during protests. RIGHT TO PROTEST – Let us not forget that we the police must strike a balance between protestors who have the constitutional right to peaceful assembly, the right to redress their concerns to their government, and the right to freedom of speech versus people who are not protesting and just want to go about their lives. Do the rights of the protestors supersede the rights of people who just want to go out or go to work or go to school? We must also consider the ramifications of our decisions when it comes to

FBINAA.ORG | Q1 2024

About the Author: Jose Vega , NA Session 253, retired after 25 years in the New York Police Department, and was assigned to Disorder Control Unit, which is the department’s main public order unit, for 19 years. During that time, he responded to more than 4,000 events, providing operational, tactical, and logistical support to the incident commander at these events. He also taught public order in the NYPD and to various departments nationally and around the world. He currently teaches the main public order course for the Center of Domestic Preparedness, is a subject matter expert regarding public order training for the L2 defense corp., and is a member

of a special technical committee under the purview of the National Institute of Justice for the standardization of crowd control tactics, equipment, and training in the United States.

13