Egypt's Revolution Continues.

Egypt is now halfway through the first phase of free elections which will see the country elect it's first democratic government in almost 60 years. Unfortunately there is a small group of mainly football hooligans who don't want this revolution and are fighting hard to stop it by rioting through the streets of Cairo. I promised myself that I wouldn't let this small minority spoil the election by making their violence the main issue but I suppose it raises a legitimate political question - what sort of police service does the new Egypt want?

They could stick with the current system where everyday crime is dealt with locally by the municipal police which is answerable to a local governor and police chief. Then there are national police forces to deal with specific types of crimes such as the border police, the traffic police, tourism & antiquities police and Mubarak's Central Security Force (CSF) which dealt with the suppression of political dissent and riot control. An alternative would be to do away with the national police forces and just have local police forces answerable to local governors first and the Interior Ministry second. However all these local police forces will have the same equipment and training so they all investigate a burglary in the same way, patrol the roads in the same way and control riots in the same way. This common standard allows them to set up mutual aid agreements so if there is a riot in Alexandria and the police there are overwhelmed they can call in extra officers from Cairo to help and vice versa. Another alternative would be to strengthen the local police forces but also set up a national or federal agency to deal with serious and complex crimes like smuggling and deal with criminals who travel between different local jurisdictions.

In the immediate term though if the violence is going to continue then the Egyptian police/military is going to have to get a lot better at riot control really quickly. From what I've seen of the recent riots the biggest problem is a complete lack of discipline. This means that rather then acting as a co-ordinated force to control unrest the Egyptian police seem to be a disorganised group of hooligans in silly clothes randomly doing what they like. To solve this problem I would break the men down into squads of 6-10 men. Each man gets his own equipment (helmet, shield, baton etc) and knows how to use it. Each squad stays together, works together, trains together, travels together and if necessary billets together. This allows each member of the squad to get to know each other's strengths and weaknesses and better function as a team. Each squad contains a NCO like a sergeant of equivalent who commands the squad. Five squads are grouped together into a unit under the command of a junior officer like a lieutenant. Each unit of 51 men should be able to defend a building or dominate a city street. For operations over a wider area these units can be co-ordinated by a more senior officer like a captain or higher.

As for tactics I think it's best to keep things simple at the moment and limit the police/military to defending key buildings rather then trying to clear the protests entirely. Obviously the best way to defend a building is to put a big, strong barrier like a wall around it and this is something the Egyptian military have already been doing extensively. The problem arises though when the rioting crowd gets too close to the barrier and starts climbing over it or tearing it down. When this happens the police/military need to disperse the crowd away from the barrier. There are a range of exotic tactics and equipment to do this ranging from live fire, plastic bullets, tear gas, stun grenades, water cannon and even acoustic weapons like the Long Range Acoustic Device (LARD). Before the Egyptian police/military attempt any of those though I think they first need to become masters of the most basic tactic - the baton charge or running clearance.

The name of this tactic is pretty much self-explanatory. It involves putting two lines of police/military - a front line and a reserve line - across the street facing the crowd. On command the front line charges into the crowd hitting anyone who gets in the way with their baton or shield. However rather then injuring people the purpose is to clear and dominate space and ideally you want to do it without having to hit anyone. Therefore it is essential that the integrity of the line is maintained and rather then charging randomly the line charges a pre-set distance like 5 metres, 10 metres or up to a designated piece of street furniture like the next set of traffic lights or a particular building. Once the front line reaches it's set point the reserve line moves up to close the gap. Obviously if the charge passes a side street or alleyway it is essential to bring in another line to block it order to stop the rioters looping back behind the line.

The best example of this I can find online is this;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LaTWqpo4jtI&feature=related

Coming from the 2008 Notting Hill Carnival although it was shot from the rioters perspective and the police are not holding their line as firmly as they should.