Public Order: Clearing an Ambulance Corridor
A planned assembly of about 300 people begins at 14:00 in a city square. The organiser submitted notice 36 hours earlier, not the 10 days required under the Peaceful Assembly Act 2012. By 15:10 the crowd has grown to about 650; a lane of a four-lane road is blocked, and an ambulance carrying a dialysis patient is stuck 120 metres away. Two traffic officers are hit by thrown plastic bottles; one has a bleeding eyebrow. The district police chief is off-site and contactable only by phone. The field commander has 40 officers, 12 with shields, and one water cannon; no tear gas has been authorised. A live stream shows a group chanting and a separate group waving a banner. The ambulance siren is audible; the crowd is not moving. The field commander must decide within minutes whether to order a dispersal, arrest the banner holder, or clear a corridor.
1. What is the lawful basis for action, and what is the least-force sequence?
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The commander's first duty is to the ambulance, not to the notice defect. The 10-day notice under the Peaceful Assembly Act 2012 is a regulatory condition; it does not authorise force, and lack of notice does not remove the duty to protect life. The least-force sequence is: (1) use a loud-hailer to explain that an ambulance must pass and ask the crowd to open a corridor; (2) deploy officers on foot, without shields raised, to guide people aside; (3) if a corridor opens, escort the ambulance through and do not arrest anyone at that moment; (4) only if the crowd refuses and the ambulance remains blocked should the commander consider a targeted, warned dispersal, using the water cannon only as a last resort and only with an escape route. Arresting the banner holder is not the least intrusive step and would likely harden the crowd while the patient is still stuck. The injured officers should be withdrawn and treated; their injury is a factor, but it does not justify indiscriminate force.
2. What must be recorded, and when would water-cannon use be disproportionate?
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Record the time the ambulance was first seen, the warnings given, the exact route offered, the crowd's response, the officers' injuries, the presence of vulnerable people, and the authorisation for any water-cannon use. Use would be disproportionate if it occurred while the ambulance was still blocked, without a clear warning and time to comply, without an escape route, against people on the ground or near barriers, or beyond the commander's authority-tear gas was not authorised. Record why arrest of the banner holder was or was not necessary. If the water cannon is used, aim it at the front of the crowd as a dispersal signal, not at individuals, and have medical support on standby. The test is necessity and proportionality at the moment of use, not the organisers' notice failure.
3. How should complaints and the injured officer's case be handled after the incident?
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Preserve body-worn camera and CCTV footage, the ambulance log, radio traffic and the officers' medical records. Complaints from the crowd should go to the Integrity and Standards Compliance Department (JIPS) and the district commander, not to the officers who used force. The injured officer's assailant should be identified from footage rather than arrested on the spot without evidence. Make a timed incident report distinguishing what was observed from what was inferred. Ask the hospital for the ambulance's arrival time, because that will be the central fact in any inquiry. Record the notice defect for separate regulatory follow-up, but do not use it to justify the dispersal after the fact.