ASSOCIATE Magazine FBINAA Q1-2024

CIVIL UNREST AND PROTEST ISSUES: PROTEST PROCEDURES AND ACTIONS

FBINAA.ORG | Q1 2024

JOSE VEGA, NA Session 253

From the Garner and Ferguson protests that engulfed our country in 2014 and 2015 to the George Floyd protests that occurred in the summer of 2020, to the January 6, 2021 protests and the 2023 protests regard ing the Tyre Nichols ’ death, there are many factors that can affect the response of law enforcement when mitigating these pro tests. One of the major factors that makes it exponentially harder to mitigate these protests is the recent rise of police resent ment in this country. T his resentment has emboldened opportunists to hijack the message from peaceful protestors and create anarchy during these protests. The police are now the very targets of those they are deployed to protect so they must keep the peace, restore order if its lost, and protect themselves from the ire of the crowd. The following are some of my best practices learned from responding and instructing various police agencies in this country. PLANNING – A solid incident action plan (IAP) should minimize surprises for the incident commander. The plan should include a synopsis for the group or groups you are dealing with, your agen cy’s rules of engagement, a brief pre-deployment briefing, the as signments of all resources deployed for the detail, the equipment and vehicles needed for the detail, along with the communication frequency or frequencies to be utilized, phone numbers for all supervisors, and a hospital plan in case of any injuries to mem bers of service. The plan should remove any lack of clarity when it comes to tactics and decision making, ensuring that everyone who needs to know about the plan, knows about the plan. The plan should also consider every stakeholder in the public and

private sector who can contribute to a successful event occurring. The plan becomes more difficult with the rise of two dynamics that are receiving tremendous amount of attention via traditional and social media. The first one is the deliberate targeting of infra structure such as distribution centers and major arterial highways. The targeting of distribution centers can lead to massive looting and the targeting of highways can cause major traffic issues. The second dynamic is the rise of civilian militia, self-styled civilian self-defense groups who take up arms to protect people and prop erty in what they may believe is an absence of law enforcement. This dynamic will put law enforcement in between two groups with radically different agendas, thus placing them in a tough position to protect the people’s right to protest and ensuring that vigilantes do not take the law into their own hands. INTELLIGENCE – Your plan should include dedicated resources to intelligence collection such as trained investigators and supervi sors who can vet intelligence that can be of use to the operation section and incident commander of an event, along with dedicat ed equipment and software that can make your intelligence gath ering more efficient. A fusion center can also be extremely useful if properly utilized. If possible, your intelligence section should have a dedicated area to work out off, away from any distractions that may affect their efficiency. TRAINING – Training should be imperative for every rank, espe cially field commanders. The training should include the under standing of what is constitutionally protected during a protest and what is not. Your training should also include the use of tactics that can de-escalate a situation along with the tactics that can suppress violent acts committed during a riot. Your field com manders should be trained in critical incident decision making, the use of tactics that do not infringe on constitutionally protected rights, command and control, situational awareness and in com munity outreach. Also, the training should incorporate how to best deploy the use of less than lethal devices, and when you should deploy resources suited up in intermediate or advanced crowd control uniforms and equipment. COMMUNITY OUTREACH – With your community outreach efforts, you must be proactive. You must reach out to the community, ask them what’s bothering them and deputize them by asking them for help whenever you need their help and or guidance. You can let them into your huddle with transparency and accountability

continued on page 12

11