Chapter 8 - The role of psychological science in public order policing

Abstract

This chapter explores the relationships between crowd theory, police psychology, and the policing and dynamics of crowds. This chapter begins by providing an overview of research on police understandings of the crowd and their relationship to public order policing. We will highlight how a body of 19th century crowd theory still informs and dominates contemporary police understanding of crowds, a psychology which in turn drives repressive forms of crowd control designed to deal with “troublemakers” and the “mindless mob.” In so doing we aim to show the importance of police psychology for driving particular forms of social action. The chapter then moves on to provide an overview of the social identity approach, now the dominant psychological model of crowd action. We will highlight some of the core theoretical concepts and ideas underpinning this psychological theory of crowd action to demonstrate its explanatory power. We will argue that according to this approach, collective action in a crowd, rather than being “mindless,” actually reflects a socially determined identity that can be shaped and reshaped by interactions with police. This chapter will then consider a program of research focused upon the application of this theoretical approach to the policing of crowds to demonstrate how it was used to reshape police psychology and practice. We will show how approaches to policing based upon this perspective drove a highly effective crowd management approach that moved police away from a focus upon coercion toward facilitation and dialogue. We argue this body of research further demonstrates the importance of police psychology in shaping public order policing and outcomes. The chapter concludes with a discussion of why crowd theory and police psychology plays such an important role and highlights the importance of and barriers to shifting police psychology away from outdated understandings of the irrationality of crowds toward a more scientifically informed evidence-based approach.