Riot control

Riot control are the measures to control a riot or to break up a demonstration (usually of protesters).

Tactics

The initial choice of tactics determines the type of manpower and equipment used. The base choice is between lethal (e.g. 12 gauge shotgun) and less-lethal weaponry (e.g. tear gas, pepper spray, plastic bullets, Tasers, batons, etc.). The decision is based on the perceived level of threat and the existing laws; in many countries it is illegal to use lethal force to control riots in all but the most extreme circumstances.

Threat-dependent force deployment is easily visible. The traditional mainstay of riot control are specially equipped police officers with fire-retardant clothing, kevlar armour, special helmets and gas masks, plastic shields, extended batons or special riot hand weapons (such as the sjambok and lathi), and possibly tasers or similar. These officers subdue rioters and subsequently allow the less heavily armoured, more mobile officers to arrest people.

In face of a greater threat, the riot police will be backed up with other officers equipped with riot guns to fire tear gas, rubber bullets, plastic bullets or beanbag rounds.

One main weapon is vehicle-mounted water cannon. The most modern watercannon versions are capable of adding dye to mark rioters or adding tear gas to the water.

In any combative pursuit, heavy supporting firepower can only accomplish so much. Often in major unrest, police in armoured vehicles (such as Land Rovers) may be sent in following an initial subduing with firepower. Occasionally, police dogs are deployed.

As a less aggressive step, mounted police may first be sent into the crowd. The might and height offered by the horse are combined with its training, allowing an officer to more safely infiltrate a crowd. Often batons are the only weapons used. However, in a hunger riot in Vienna in 1919 the rioters resisted the police horses and killed many of them, and afterwards butchered them on the spot for their flesh.

Usually, when front-facing a riot, officers slowly walk in a line parallel to the riot's front, extending to both its ends, as they noisily and simultaneously march and beat their shields with their batons, to cause fear and psychological effects on the crowd.

The French CRS's tactics against a long demonstration march is to attack it at several points and chop it into segments, rather than to merely try to block it at its front end.

Equipment

Shields

See riot shield.

Tear gas

This can be fired in various ways: tear gas grenade gun, tear gas grenade thrown by hand, tear gas sprays. There have been batons that contain a tear gas spray.

Batons

The traditional material for batons and similar for most purposes for a long time has been wood.
As a riotsquad and guard baton, the British Army tends to use the pickaxe handle. They have a rule that these must be exactly 3 feet long, as they are also used for measuring.
Rubber batons are common: for example, the French CRS's baton is about 1.5 inches diameter and slightly over 2 feet long. The Russian police also use rubber batons, but some have had to use wood in areas where the winter frost gets cold enough to make rubber brittle.
See Specialized clubs.

Helmets

Designs include:

A plain helmet and hinged visor (usually polycarbonate) which goes up outside the helmet. Usually a riotsquad visor is straight up and down and curved sideways, not curved both ways like a motorcycle helmet visor.
With the visor disappearing between two layers of the helmet as it is hinged up.
A sort of CRS helmet has two visors, one of each sort. The outer visor is transparent. The inner visor is a "one-way window" that is transparent to a man wearing the helmet, but looks like freshly polished opaque copper metal when seen from outside, so that the man's face cannot be seen by the public.
The chinstraps tend to be more complicated than on motorcycle helmets.
One accessory is an attached pad to protect the back of the neck.
Unlike motorcycle helmets, they tend to have small holes over the ears so the wearer can hear more easily.
Other accessories include microphones and receivers for two-way radio.

Research

The police have been conducting research into their application in the fields of riot control. The most recent research into the field of less than lethal weaponry has produced such innovations as:-

netguns.
lasers (that blind and dazzle rioters).
pellets filled with pepper spray.
stink bombs.
foam (which can immobilize rioters).
microwave generators
low frequency sound cannons that can cause internal discomfort to rioters (although they can cause serious injury or death in certain cases).

Law enforcement techniques | Riots