Shooting in the Dark

Police tactics in major confrontations were transformed by a secret riot manual written for Chief Constables in 1983. Weapons which were unacceptable less than a decade ago - plastic bullets and CS gas among them - are now stocked in police armouries throughout Britain. Paramilitary manoeuvres once confined to riot squads in colonial police forces have been imported for domestic use - the miners at Orgreave and the printers at Wapping were among the first to feel their effect. Drawing on unpublished police documents, including the full text of the secret riot manual, Gerry Northam reveals the hidden militarization of Britain's constabulary. He argues that an obsession with secrecy has overturned the tradition of policing by public consent, and traces the paramilitary drift which threatens the survival of Britain's unarmed police force.