Public Order Manual Poman 1971 [2027]

For all its tactical sophistication, critics argue that POMAN 1971 suffered from a fatal flaw: it conflated disorder with dissent.

The manual’s definition of a "public order threat" was so broad that a blocked sidewalk could be treated with the same tactical response as a barricaded gunman. Furthermore, it introduced the concept of the "mobile field force"—platoons of 40 officers who move as a phalanx, shields locked, pushing crowds backward.

While effective, this military-style formation criminalizes passivity. If you are pushed, you are resisting. If you cannot hear the order to disperse due to helicopters and shouting, you are violating the law. public order manual poman 1971

By the late 1970s, civil lawsuits began citing POMAN as the blueprint for "unlawful mass arrests." In a famous 1979 case, a federal judge noted that police had followed POMAN "to the letter," but that the letter itself violated the First Amendment’s guarantee of assembly.

Several chapters of POMAN 1971 were copied verbatim into the 1999 manual, particularly: For all its tactical sophistication, critics argue that

Thus, anyone who fully understands POMAN 1971 understands the tactical foundation of most Western democratic police forces today.

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One of the most legally aggressive sections of POMAN allowed officers to arrest individuals before they committed any public order offense, based solely on “reasonable suspicion of future breach of the peace.” This effectively created a category of pre-crime. Critics argued it gutted the presumption of innocence. Thus, anyone who fully understands POMAN 1971 understands

Famous cases from the 1970s saw anti-apartheid activists arrested on their way to peaceful demonstrations, held for 24 hours, then released without charge—a tactic designed not to convict, but to disrupt.