The King’s Coronation was a huge event that was being watched around the world. Events like that take a huge amount of organising and that includes the security and policing of it. I have seen the work that has gone into big events, although not on the scale of what was seen on the streets of London. The challenge is for the police to remain independent in their approach.
Policing has to walk a fine line between allowing people to peacefully protest but also to ensure the safety of others and to allow events to run smoothly. It isn’t easy. I have seen some police officers do it really well. They were able to go into a meeting with protesters and come out with an agreed way forward that helped to maintain that balance. Even in the most difficult discussions they were able to turn things around. At the same time the event organisers and leaders could see it was the best way forward, and those same officers would push back at comments about ‘banning protests’.
The photographs of protesters being arrested and the stories of others who were scooped up in a bid to allow the day to pass peacefully has put the Metropolitan Police under pressure again. In the coming weeks the rights or wrongs of those arrests will be debated but the reputation of the Met Police has been put in the spotlight again.
As a crisis communication consultant with a background in policing, I can see both sides. The difficulty of policing big events where views are polarised, and the way communication could be supporting their difficult journey. There is a need to have a national discussion about the right to protest particularly in light of recent changes. People need to understand what it means, and the police and Government need to listen to people’s views.
Reading the statements from the police highlighted that there needs to be a clearer explanation of why actions were taken. It didn’t help that a tweet about the volunteer arrests was deleted and replaced. There may be nothing sinister in this but social media is unforgiving and full of people ready to jump on such actions leading to conspiracy theories. I am also waiting to see a senior police officer take the opportunity to explain their position. We are in a world of visuals and written statements on social media don’t have the required impact.
In my view, the Met Police have to keep reinforcing how they changing and showing the action that is being taken and how it is impacting on front line policing. The Coronation feels like a missed opportunity where the focus has been taken from all the positive work that led to a successful event. This was a huge security undertaking that was overwhelmingly successful but policing has to keep an eye on actions or events that can undermine trust.
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