Crisis negotiator says police are neglecting a direct line to Parliament protesters - social media

Wednesday, 16 February 2022

Walking through the protest on the grounds of Parliament on Tuesday night. The occupation has taken on a festival-like atmosphere.

Police trying to get a group of protesters off Parliament’s lawn are neglecting the direct line available to them through social media, a former negotiator says.

The convoy protesters have now been camped on the grounds for more than a week.

Former police lead crisis negotiator Lance Burdett said the anti-vaccine and anti-mandate protesters had found their common ground on social media. But he believed the police’s use of it during the protest had been prosaic and underwhelming.

It meant relationships were a lot harder to form with the group, which was made up of people who were largely peaceful, he said.

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Mandate and anti-vaccine protesters are social media regulars, and it is a direct line to them that police can use, Lance Burdett says.

“They could have used social media a lot more. They do a lot of lighthearted tweets, puppies and jokes and it builds rapport with the community, it’s brilliant,” Burdett said.

“But there’s been none of that so far during the protest, and they’ve got to have a rethink about how to do it differently.

“It [social media] is a direct line to the protesters, of course it is.

“Police leadership might not like it, but this is the world we live in now and we have to use it.”

Police Commissioner Andrew Coster says the situation outside Parliament is 'no longer tenable'.

Police Commissioner Andrew Coster has told protesters that he expected the towing of unlawfully parked vehicles near Parliament to on Wednesday.

Protesters whose vehicles are towed away won’t be getting them back 'anytime soon', Coster said on Wednesday morning.

Significant research has gone into the police’s use of social media during protests in the US in recent years, and how it can quell tense situations.

The Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation’s paper ‘Policing Protests’ is one of the gold standards for modern policing of demonstrations, and its authors Edward Macguire and Megan Oakley note that social media is now an “essential ingredient” during protests.

“Unlike the portrayal of police in more conventional media accounts, social media allows for a more informal, more personal, and in some cases more humorous or lighthearted way of communicating with the public.”

If done well during a protest, Macguire and Oakley say it can create common ground and a shared bond, encourage peaceful expression, provide regular information, clarify factual inaccuracies, and bring a sense of personality to tense proceedings.

Burdett said police’s removal of the vehicles, a necessary thing to do, would inevitably “inflame the situation”.

He said if police did move to tow the vehicles, they should consider live tweeting or provide live updates of the operation as a way to inform and quell the crowd.

Surprising the crowd was not an option as it would bring out a “fight or flight” response, he said.

Macguire told Stuff he didn’t know enough about the context in New Zealand to recommend a specific approach.

“My generic advice in these circumstances is for officers to mill about in the crowd, humanise themselves and the protesters, and engage in routine dialogue with protesters (unless it becomes unsafe to do so).

“If it reaches a point where police need to disperse the protesters, they should provide plenty of warning using a device that is clearly audible.

“The protesters should not be surprised when police move in to disperse them. The police should communicate very clearly what will happen.”

Police have been approached for comment.