Effective communications are the key to implementing effective responses to overnight huge riots

It is May 25th, 2020, which starts as a normal day.  Like many such days which end up being recorded in the annals of law enforcement history.

The weather in Minneapolis, MN was seasonally normal when the call came in to respond to a criminal event.  Minneapolis police were dispatched to a crime scene where they located and apprehended George Floyd, a black man.  Sadly, this scene quickly changed to a police excessive force and racial incident since Mr. Floyd died in police custody and the event was captured on video.

This is a day that advances a movement.

This media was instantly uploaded to national TV broadcasting and immediately went on all the major social media outlets with another black man dies in police custody.  While the initial protests focus on this incident resulted in protests in just about all major cities of the country, many significant protests also became organized in the small suburban communities and towns of populations of 25,000 to 75,000 plus.  While the protests started that evening nationwide, by day 7, the number and size of these protests quickly grew to a point beyond the major cities.

In very short order, a few hours, it became clear that law enforcement was going to have to implement its emergency readiness program to address the issues of the protest and potential riots that could develop.  Sophisticated two-way radio communications were going to be required to successfully respond to the protests or riots which meant that each team member was going to have to be linked into their respective network and probably work in an outrageous noise riddle environment.

But this day is unique.  This incident has occurred during the COVID-19 Pandemic which further complicates the law enforcement response.  Thus, one of the biggest inherent risks of the response is advancing this highly contagious deathly virus.  Not managed, this could cause a second wave to peak again in those states and communities where aggressive and containment measures including economic business closures have recently been successfully deployed at great expense; especially, loss revenues to local governments.  Such progress required to provide an opportunity to develop and phased-in re-opening opportunities within limits shortly.  

Unfortunately, almost immediately, organized criminal gang elements developed and implemented plans to capitalize on the protests.  Several of these criminal entities appeared to have implemented military-style tactics.

First, their members blended into those peaceful crowds to access and engage the law enforcement response.  After these initial activities, these criminal gangs promoted aggressive activities such as throwing water bottles and rocks, etc.  These activities also included confrontations with police lines and vandalizing property and vehicles to distract for many of their desired activities.  A shock and awe strategy.  In some cases, it was observed that a mobile contingency component dispersed to take advantage of the limits of the resources of law enforcement.  The latter group being focused on organized crime activities such as destroying and looting local pharmacies and businesses of precious contraband to be resold for profit.

For the first responders to be effective to combat these issues, they must be able to quickly deploy their respective command centers and implement their readiness programs.  Such command centers will vary depending on the size of the community.

The key in deploying the appropriate amount of resources for successful combat is depended upon effective – real-time communication which is compatible with multiple agencies and departments as well as local (municipalities and townships), state, and federal governments agencies and departments; including FBI, ATF, Border Patrol, and Homeland Security, etc.

Improving Communication with the Right Equipment

The members of these various units employed must have the communications equipment to report through their respective chain of command to the appropriate leadership who in turn can communicate with the heads of the other units to provide a coordinated approach.

These various law enforcements and support units require uninterrupted and reliable communication equipment such as Motorola APX6000, Harris XL-200, etc.

In this regard, two-way radio communications are the most effective equipment used to coordinate large scale operations designed to rapidly deploy resources to combat criminal activities.

• Such equipment needs to be state-of-the-art status which could include Motorola apx 6000 accessories with Motorola headsets  
• With local police departments normally tasked with the mission-critical leadership role, Police Earpiece 
• And Radio Microphones are critical complements for effective communications.

In the era of highly effective social media communications, unlike such other developed protests of the past, local law enforcement may quickly find itself being required to interact on a real-time basis with not only state police and fire department units, but also national guard units, even federal FBI, ATF, and border patrol units.

The urgency for law enforcement to have, quickly develop and deploy strategic large scale operations to manage such sophisticated complex protests which may involve any organized or unorganized opportunistic element(s) who convert legal protest into looting and other criminal activities of the hour.

Waveband Communications has a decade of proven experience of providing all the critical equipment components for effective communications required to successfully respond to overnight huge riots.