Police protest tactics 'give officers excessive and disproportionate control'

Study by network of police monitoring groups says use of pre-emptive arrests and kettling are unjustified curbs on liberty

Pre-emptive arrests, confinement by kettling and the gathering of personal data give police officers "excessive and disproportionate" control over public protests, a report by a coalition of police monitoring groups has warned.

The study by the Network for Police Monitoring (Netpol) is highly critical of tactics used by forces across the country to clamp down on what it says are freedoms of assembly and expression.
Based on evidence from court cases and eyewitness reports of police operations in 2010 and 2011, the study calls for a more tolerant approach towards processions and protests.