Managing Demonstrations, Protests, Civil Disobedience, Legal and Liability Issues

Use of Force/Arrest/Declaration of Unlawful Conduct

Over the last few days there has been calls for ongoing and continuous protests as inauguration approaches.   It is likely that law enforcement throughout the United States will be burdened with either leading the crowd control element of the protests and possible riots or will called upon to assist lead agencies.   It has never been more important to ensure that officers and supervising decision makers are prepared to make legal decisions under the most extreme conditions

While LLRMI has been offering ongoing training on crowd control during civil unrest, protest, and riots for a number of years, a large number of agencies have reached out over the last few days seeking immediate training on the legal issues related to crowd control including, First Amendment Rights of Protestors, Declaring an Unlawful Assembly, and Use of Force during civil unrest.

LLRMI will be hosting a 90-minute webinar on Friday January 15, 2021 from 11-12:30 East Coast time to address some of the major legal issues in law enforcement crowd control.

This training webinar should be attended by all officers who may be called to participate in a crowd control event.  It has been noted that law enforcement has been criticized for doing too much or too little during these events.  Thus, the need to ensure that officers, and especially the officers serving in command positions during these events, are prepared so that decision making will be consistent with established First and Fourth Amendment principles.

The session will be presented by Jack Ryan, retired captain of the Providence Rhode Island Police Department, who has been retained as both a consulting and testimonial expert in numerous lawsuits arising out of law enforcement actions during protests and riots.  Jack, who is also an attorney, is able to bring the law and practice together in a way that assists all officers in Constitutional decision-making.