The Chief Inspector of Constabulary has given warning that public confidence in policing will be dangerously eroded unless there is urgent reform of the way officers deal with protests.

Criticising the way that police dealt with the G20 protests, Denis O’Connor said that the national police training manual for public order, published in 2007, was “inadequate for the world police are operating in”.

He said that during the London demonstrations in April police had concentrated on the danger of disorder, rather than realising that their job was to facilitate the “very precious freedom” of peaceful protest.

Some commanders planning for the protest were unaware of the legal situation around the use of “kettling”, or containing protesters, and ill-informed about human rights legislation.

A range of issues crystallised on April 1 when thousands of protesters gathered for a series of demonstrations around the G20 summit: a newspaper vendor, Ian Tomlinson, died as officers tried to clear the streets; communications broke down between between police, protesters and the media; and every aspect of the day was relayed instantly via the media and “citizen journalism”.

Mr O’Connor advocated significant reforms in his report into policing at the G20, Adapting to Protests. “If these recommendations are not adopted, there will be more disruption to our lives, there will be more very problematic incidents, police will be challenged in the courts and the public will be progressively more aware of it,” he said.

“Consent will be withdrawn. It won’t necessarily be a cliff face but another sad erosion of the basis of British policing. We live in an age where public consent of policing cannot be assumed, and policing should be designed to win consent. Future events like the Olympics 2012 make change all the more critical.”

The report highlighted a number of areas of serious concern:

— Orders given on April 1 to enforce a cordon around the crowd at the Bank of England were “confusing and difficult to implement” and officers were not given sufficient discretion to allow people to leave the area;

— Some officers had removed their identification numbers, something for which there could be “no excuse”;

— There was no assessment of the medical risks posed by tactics such as using shields to push back protesters.

Mr O’Connor said that police floundered as protest groups shared information on social networking site such as Facebook. “The pace and sophistication of communications arguably left police, particularly officers on the ground, less well-informed than protesters,” he said.

The report also contained details of an Ipsos/MORI poll into “kettling”, in which 76 per cent of respondents said that the tactic was justified if it prevented disruption to day-to-day life. Approval rose to 84 per cent in situations of serious disorder.

Chris Allison, Assistant Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, accepted the report’s recommendations but disagreed that senior commanders were not fully aware of the human rights situation. “We accept that we must always seek to provide the best possible service and this means making improvements where necessary,” he said. “As a police service, we have clear duties under the law: to facilitate protest, minimise the impact it has on others and maintain peace on our streets.”

The human rights group Liberty welcomed the report but called for further investigation into the “militaristic approach” of the specialist policiing unit the Territorial Support Group.

Explore UK News

• Crime News

• Education News

• Health News

• Scotland News

Times Recommends

• The bright side of this winter rain
• Story behind the picture: Snow Leopard, 2008
• Times Charity Appeal: The Place2Be