I study crowds – that’s why I know the police and crime bill will make us less safe | Stephen Reicher

Priti Patel's crackdown on peaceful protesters ignores all the evidence about how to handle large demonstrations

On the first day of 2022 - the hottest New Year's Day on record - Priti Patel announced that cracking down on eco protesters would be one of her priorities for the year.

It wasn't simply rhetoric. The police, crime, sentencing and courts bill for England and Wales being debated in parliament provides the police with a dramatic extension to their powers to stop or constrain protest. It even contains a provision allowing police to fine protesters for inadvertent breaches of restrictions they ought" to have known about.

Stephen Reicher is a member of the Sage subcommittee advising on behavioural science. He is a professor of Psychology at the University of St Andrews. During Cop26 he was part of a research team, funded by the New Institute in Hamburg, which was studying the dynamics of protest.