The Anthology

The Anthology
5
Introduction
This anthology is part of the project “Good Practice
for Dialogue and Communication as Strategic Principles
for Policing Political Manifestations in Europe”
(GODIAC). 1
The purpose of the GODIAC project was to contribute
to the development of a European approach
to policing political manifestations.
The strategic objectives of the GODIAC project
were:
Analyse and disseminate good practices of applying
research-based principles focusing on communication
and dialogue as strategic principles for
de-escalation and prevention of public order disturbances
at political manifestations in Europe.
Increase knowledge on the social identities of
demonstrators and activists, their motivation,
mobility and strategies.
Stimulate the use of research-based knowledge in
policing political manifestations.
Promote evaluation of policing major events at
a European level.
Stimulate lessons to be learnt, disseminated and
used nationally and internationally.
Develop institutional co-operation and networks
at a European level between practitioners,
researchers and trainers.
Facilitate collaboration between law enforcement
agencies and research networks.
GODIAC addressed the following overall research
questions:
How can communication and dialogue strategies
contribute to preventing public order disturbances
or help de-escalate tense situations in demonstrations?
1 This publication reflects the views of its authors alone. The
European Commission cannot be held responsible for any
use that may be made of the information contained herein.
What are the motives of and the different tactics
and strategies used by different kinds of protest
groups?
What police strategies and tactics can be seen as
good examples?
The aim of this researcher volume is, on the one
hand, to present research produced during the course
of the GODIAC project, along with the experiences
of police officers in the field and of trainers who
participated in the project, and on the other hand, to
broaden that perspective by incorporating contributions
from outside the project. The volume is divided
into two parts; the first deals with issues related to
the police, and the second addresses issues related to
demonstrators and protesters. We hope that this volume
will provide further insight into issues associated
with policing at major events and shed light on the
complexity of the organisations, motives, and strategies
in play whenever protester groups are involved.
The first part of the volume consists of a series of
articles dealing with issues of dialogue and communication
as a strategic tool in policing major events.
First, Marianne Hilton and Christian Wessman present
the Swedish special police tactics (SPT) project.
Hilton was the SPT project manager, and as a police
commander, Wessman was one of the practitioners
to take part in the field studies conducted under the
project’s aegis. The SPT project came about in the
aftermath of the riots during the European Union
(EU) summit in Gothenburg in 2001, and the article
discusses how the project was developed, what lessons
were learned, and what happened after the project’s
completion. The experiences of those involved
with the Swedish project in turn inspired the Swedish
National Police to initiate the GODIAC project.
Ola Österling, head of the dialogue unit of the
Stockholm County Police, provides his perspective
and experience on dialogue and communication.
He does so from the perspective of a police officer on
the ground. Österling was one of the key figures in