Standards, Tactics, and Training Manual
March 2004
The purpose of this Manual is to provide guidance on the tactics and standards approved by the Association of Chief Police Officers in relation to the discipline referred to ordinarily as ‘Public Order’. It is essentially the tactical complement to ACPO’s strategic document ‘Keeping the Peace’.
As with so much in policing ‘Public Order’ defies a simplistic definition covering as it does a range of policing activities including the most solemn, the most joyous and the most dangerous events that our communities may be involved with. Without doubt the proper maintenance of order in those communities and the preservation of the peace are core activities for the police service.
This Manual is not intended to be the final word in public order tactics – which would be both presumptuous and impossible. It is meant to identify the best of our current knowledge, set standards and give advice – it will therefore need to be changed as the challenges facing the police service and its response develop. To fail to do so would be a corporate dereliction of duty. (pdf on euro-police.noblogs.org)
