7-805 CIVIL
DISTURBANCES
(04/20/01) (06/16/20)
A. MPD
personnel will not interfere with lawful protests or demonstrations.
1. Unless
a crime has been committed, officers are responsible only for keeping the peace
at civil disturbances.
2. If a
citizen’s arrest is made, officers are required to accept the prisoner unless
it appears that the arrest is unlawful.
B. Officers
responding to large-scale disturbances, or those that are likely to become
violent, shall notify their supervisor. The responding supervisor shall assume
incident command and determine the need for additional assistance, equipment,
and tactics to be used.
1. The
responding supervisor will inform the Watch Commander, who shall contact MECC
with information of the situation. MECC shall contact the Chief of Police and
the appropriate Bureau Head, with information of the situation.
2. The
first level of additional assistance shall be precinct officers and designated
response cars. The supervisor or on-scene incident commander shall establish a
field command post with a designated staging area. The incident commander shall
designate officers for security details for police vehicles and equipment.
3. The
incident commander may activate the Emergency Response Unit (ERU) in order to
provide additional demonstration management resources. Upon activation, the ERU
will be deployed and directed by the ERU commander in consultation with the
incident commander.
4. The
incident commander shall be in charge of the incident as a whole, however, the
ERU commander shall direct the specific actions of ERU members once they have
been activated, consistent with the mission outlined by the incident commander.
C. During
protests and demonstrations, use of all crowd control weapons must be
authorized only by the Chief of Police, or if the Chief is unavailable, the
Chief's designee at the rank of Deputy Chief or above (in accordance with
P&P 5-312).
Definitions
Refer to the Commonly Used Terms page for general definitions.