Policing Insight: A distance approach

The continuing and co-ordinated public disorder across the UK has brought renewed calls for more extreme responses from police, including the use of water cannons and turning to the Army; former chief superintendent and specialist in public order policing Owen West, now a Senior Policing Lecturer at Edge Hill University, argues that while those measures may not be effective, there are steps that forces can take to strengthen public order policing in the short to medium term.