From Coercion to Consent

This chapter traces the spread of Elaborated Social Identity Model (ESIM)-informed strategies from football to protest policing, showing how principles of legitimacy, dialogue, and differentiation became embedded in new operational models. Reform was often crisis-driven: the 2001 Gothenburg riots led Sweden to create the Special Police Tactic and the first Dialogue Police units, while the 2009 death of Ian Tomlinson during the G20 protests exposed the dangers of coercive containment in the UK. Denmark’s development of event policing consolidated this Nordic trajectory. Academic–practitioner collaboration translated ESIM into doctrine, with oversight and inquiry – particularly the UK’s Adapting to Protest reports – explicitly rejecting classical crowd psychology and endorsing evidence-based approaches. The creation of Dialogue Police in Sweden and Police Liaison Teams in the UK institutionalised communication, facilitation, and differentiation, reducing conflict and protecting rights while providing internal feedback to constrain coercive tendencies. These reforms marked a convergence of science, human rights law, and democratic policing philosophy: ESIM provided the framework, legal standards required facilitation of protest, and civic policing reaffirmed legitimacy as the cornerstone of public order. Yet, this chapter also highlights the cultural and institutional challenges of sustaining reform within organisations shaped by coercive traditions.