Policing the Crowd (Routledge Advances in Police Practice and Knowledge)

Crowds are among the most visible expressions of democracy - whether in celebration, protest, or tragedy - but they are also moments of tension, where rights, safety, and authority collide.This book explores how societies manage these critical encounters.Drawing on dramatic case studies from Britain, Europe, and the United States, it reveals how crowd psychology and policing intersect, why disorder spreads, and how legitimacy can be won or lost in the space of a single decision. Policing the Crowd is the first comprehensive account of how crowd psychology has transformed policing.What makes this book distinctive is the depth of its embedded research: written from inside the process, it offers unmatched insight into how evidence has directly shaped policing practice and policy reform. Some of the key features of this book are as follows:• Traces the history of public order policing from nineteenth-century Britain to the English riots of 2011 and the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020.