Riot Control
Created | Updated Sep 21, 2005
A riot is where public order breaks down and the job of the riot police is to restore order, not make arrests necessarily. In the UK riot control equipment is made but much of it has never been authorised to use in this country. We will never see rioters convulsing back from the electrified hull of an armoured car unless we see it on the international news.
The main personal equipment for the riot police is protective equipment. Much of this can be purchased from army surplus stores - helmets with neck protectors and polycarbonate visors, elbow and knee protectors, gloves and riot shields. The main offensive weapon is the riot baton - between three feet and six feet in length.
The riot control vehicle used depends more on political considerations than anything else. For example, tracked vehicles have never been used in Northern Ireland in case the accusation of sending tanks on the streets was made. The riot control vehicles may have an obstcale clearance blade to remove barricades, an electrified hull to repel boarders, searchlights and water cannons.
Water cannons can have chemicals put into the water tank - dyes (either normally visible or only under UV light) and harassment agents (tear gas). Rioters can be rounded up days after as the dyes canot be scrubbed off.
In mainland Britain neither water cannons nor baton rounds (plastic bullets) have ever been used. The British bobby is limited to riot police and police horses.
Tear gas is not a gas, its an aerosol, technically known as a harassment agent. Some consider them to breach the Geneva Convention, being a chemical agent and therefore chemical warfare.
The future of riot control rests with the less-than-lethal weapons developed by the US Army (for my next guide entry)
The main personal equipment for the riot police is protective equipment. Much of this can be purchased from army surplus stores - helmets with neck protectors and polycarbonate visors, elbow and knee protectors, gloves and riot shields. The main offensive weapon is the riot baton - between three feet and six feet in length.
The riot control vehicle used depends more on political considerations than anything else. For example, tracked vehicles have never been used in Northern Ireland in case the accusation of sending tanks on the streets was made. The riot control vehicles may have an obstcale clearance blade to remove barricades, an electrified hull to repel boarders, searchlights and water cannons.
Water cannons can have chemicals put into the water tank - dyes (either normally visible or only under UV light) and harassment agents (tear gas). Rioters can be rounded up days after as the dyes canot be scrubbed off.
In mainland Britain neither water cannons nor baton rounds (plastic bullets) have ever been used. The British bobby is limited to riot police and police horses.
Tear gas is not a gas, its an aerosol, technically known as a harassment agent. Some consider them to breach the Geneva Convention, being a chemical agent and therefore chemical warfare.
The future of riot control rests with the less-than-lethal weapons developed by the US Army (for my next guide entry)
