Crowd and Riot Control

Water cannon on May 1, 2001 in Berlin, Kreuzberg (Mariannenplatz / corner of Waldemarstrasse)

Canadian police officers with tear gas grenade launchers

Crowd and Riot Control ( CRC ) is the English expression for "monitoring dissatisfied crowds and containing riots". This task is performed by civil or military organizations of a country or a treaty or community of states. Police , paramilitary organizations or armed forces can be used as CRC forces . The term is used less in police parlance. In Switzerland, the term "unpeaceful security service" is used in this context.

The equipment for these forces includes protective shields, protective helmets, body protectors, batons (e.g. a clearing and baton / rescue stick RMS ), irritants ( e.g. pepper spray or tear gas ), water cannons and rubber bullets .

Crowd and Riot Control in individual countries

Germany

A riot police in formation

In Germany, these tasks are generally carried out by the police in the federal states. The Federal Police performs the tasks within the framework of administrative assistance, the agreement on the riot police and the constitutional tasks to support the states in the event of tension and defense. An exception is the emergency law , according to which the armed forces can also be used inside.

When abroad, CRC tasks are usually carried out by soldiers. The main focus of such operations is on Peace Support Operations (PSO) of the Bundeswehr, as demonstrations there are very often directed against the military facilities of the foreign troops (e.g. KFOR ). During demonstrations, soldiers of the combat troops set up a chain of posts. This is supported by specially trained sergeants from the Feldjäger who form so-called grab squads to identify and arrest ringleaders and instigators of the demonstrations. In addition, the police officers' investigators and investigators document and preserve evidence in the form of videos.

From 2006 to 2013 the following five military police companies provided a CRC platoon :

• 3./Feldjägerbataillon 151 ( Ernst-Moritz-Arndt barracks , Hagenow )
• 4./Feldjägerbataillon 151 ( Reichspräsident-Ebert-Kaserne , Hamburg )
• 5./Feldjägerbataillon 152 ( Scharnhorst barracks , Bremen )
• 4./Feldjägerbataillon 251 ( Alheimer barracks , Rotenburg an der Fulda )
• 3./Feldjägerbataillon 252 ( Hardthöhe , Bonn )
• 5./Feldjägerbataillon 351 ( Clausewitz barracks , castle )

In these units, team soldiers with the specialization CRC are trained. Specializations are the use in the NLW troop (from English non-lethal weapons ), in the fire fighting and in the recovery troop.

United States

United States Army soldiers during a CRC exercise at the Hohenfels Training Area

Domestically, these duties are primarily performed by local or state police forces (e.g. sheriff , local police force, state police force). However, the National Guard is also deployed, especially in large areas.

Abroad, CRC tasks are usually carried out by all soldiers in the Army or the National Guard . There is no specialization in military police forces. The training for this takes place partly in Germany.

See also

• demonstration
• Street battle
• Summit policing
• Evacuation simulation - scientific methods for modeling pedestrian flows

Web links

Commons : Riot control  - collection of images, videos and audio files

literature

• Federal Ministry of Defense (Ed.): Central service regulation of the Bundeswehr - ZDv 75/100 The military police officers of the Bundeswehr . Bonn.
• Sören Sünkler: The special units of the Bundeswehr . 2nd Edition. Motorbuch-Verlag, Stuttgart 2007, ISBN 978-3-613-02592-9 .
• Reinhard Scholzen : Feldjäger: Germany's military police today . Motorbuch, Stuttgart 2010, ISBN 978-3-613-03152-4 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ At the moment , the barracks are to be closed, cf. HNA Regiowiki and the entry at Rotenburg an der Fulda.