Jenny Jones has welcomed the HMIC review of public order policing.
Jenny Jones said:
"The Metropolitan Police have received a clear message from their own inspectorate that they have to facilitate peaceful protest, even if that means allowing some illegal behaviour. If the Met wants to keep the public’s consent then it must improve public order training and tactics, especially regarding the use of kettling, where official guidelines need to be revised and communication with protesters improved."
"The police’s primary objective at all times should be to maintain community safety and the management of the G20 protests clearly failed in this respect."
"The inspectorate has got it exactly right about the need to shift the focus onto whether the protest is peaceful, rather than whether it is lawful. The climate camp protest on Bishopsgate was part of a well established tradition of non violent direct action and the aggressive use of shields and batons was clearly over the top. The policing of the Tamil protest outside Parliament shows that the police can get the balance right."
"I also agree with the Inspectorate that existing training in public order policing and tactics are inadequate and don’t reflect the full spectrum of protest which the police have to deal with. We should adopt the same approach as the Northern Ireland police and have a civil liberties expert inserted into the training regime to give advice."
"The police’s primary objective at all times should be to maintain community safety and the management of the G20 protests clearly failed in this respect. I will press the London Mayor to make adopting these HMIC recommendations one of his priorities for policing in London, but he should also consider whether kettling is ever appropriate. Any delay will lead to an erosion of public support for policing in London."