Communicating with the Public About Marauding Terrorist Firearms Attacks: Results from a Survey Experiment on Factors Influencing Intention to “ Run, Hide, Tell

Effective risk communication is an integral part of responding to terrorism, but until recently there has been very little pre-event communication in a European context to provide advice to the public on how to protect themselves during an attack. Following terrorist attacks involving mass shootings in Paris, France in November 2015, the UK National Police Chiefs’ Council released a ‘Stay Safe’ film and leaflet that advises the public to ‘run’, ‘hide’ and ‘tell’ in the event of a firearms or weapons attack. However, other countries including Denmark do not provide preparedness information of this kind, in large part because of concern about scaring the public. In this survey experiment, 3003 UK and Danish participants were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: no information; a leaflet intervention; and a film intervention to examine the impact of ‘Run, Hide, Tell’ advice on perceptions about terrorism, the security services and intended responses to a hypothetical terrorist firearms attack. Results demonstrate important benefits of pre-event communication in relation to enhancing trust, encouraging protective health behaviours and discouraging potentially dangerous actions. However, these findings also suggest that future communications should address perceived response costs and target specific problem behaviours. Cross-national similarities in response suggest this advice is suitable for adaptation in other countries

Coping with disorder? : the changing relationship between police public order strategy and practice—a critical analysis of the Burnley Riot

This article identifies significant recent public order policing strategy change on the part of the public police—first, in recognition of the dynamic relationship between disorder and policing, and second, concerning a more flexible conceptualization of the traditional “riot curve”. This would potentially move the policing of social disorder away from a situation of what Wright refers to in Policing: An Introduction to Concepts and Practice (2002) as “simply coping” with conflict towards one of “managing” it, being part of the process of transition for policing generally from modern to late‐modern. For a fundamental shift to occur in the public order policing arena though, such policies would need to be carried through in practice. Our critical analysis and “recontextualization” of a riot that took place in Burnley in 2001 suggests that in this instance, at least, this has not (yet) taken place