Cops and Chaos: A Historical Examination of the Police Role in Riot Control

Abstract

Although professional police forces in the western world were developed owing in large part to the need for agencies capable of handling violent crowds and riots, the ability of police agencies to control riots remains questionable. The present work provides an overview of the nature of crowd violence, a brief description of the historical evolution of crowd violence in the United States, the role law enforcement agencies played in incidents of crowd violence, and broad theoretically informed policy recommendations for the handling of crowds and crowd violence. Building upon this review of the history of rioting in the United States and extant empirical research pertinent to crowds, group dynamics, and rioting, it is suggested that constant police professionalism and just treatment of the citizenry by police officers, thorough planning and preparation for crowd events, engagement of crowds, and rapid identification and removal of individual troublemakers may help reduce the potential for crowd violence.