Skip to main contentSkip to navigationSkip to navigation
Ian Tomlinson
Photograph of a Guardian video showing Ian Tomlinson - second from right - shortly before his death. Photograph: Sarah Lee
Photograph of a Guardian video showing Ian Tomlinson - second from right - shortly before his death. Photograph: Sarah Lee

How Ian Tomlinson's death at the G20 protests changed policing

This article is more than 14 years old

Ian Tomlinson would have heard the jeers moments after he was struck and pushed to the ground by a police officer.

The time was 7:20pm on 1 April, and the violent assault on a man walking away from police with his hands in his pockets sparked an angry reaction from the crowd. Seconds after Tomlinson, 47, hit the pavement, the crowd near the Bank of England for the G20 protests booed. One shouted out: "Who let the dogs out?"

Eight months on, and public outrage at Tomlinson's death is being cited as a turning point in British policing. As with the previous deaths of Jean Charles de Menezes, Stephen Lawrence and Blair Peach, the tragic fate of Tomlinson, a father of nine who had been trying to walk home from work, sparked a rethink of policing. The aftermath saw 280 complaints to the Independent Police Complaints Commission, many alleging excessive police force. Two parliamentary inquiries criticised Scotland Yard's handling of the protests.

Senior Metropolitan police officers responsible for the G20 have refused to budge from their position that it was, in the main, a "successful" operation.

Sir Denis O'Connor is understood to have found senior Met officers, the pioneers of so-called "kettles" to contain protesters and surveillance units to track their movements, the most resistant to change. But on the ground, change has already happened. The treatment of activists in Climate Camp, the UK's largest environmental group, shows how far policies have shifted.

At the G20, where Climate Camp campaigners gathered in Bishopsgate, police dramatically changed tactics around dusk. Replacing "bobbies" who were intermingling with protesters, riot police formed a kettle around the protest. Faced with repeated baton charges, protesters held up their arms, chanting "this is not a riot". A judge has agreed that the Met's handling of the Climate Camp should be challenged in a high court judicial review, it was announced today. But a very different Met approach was already on display at the Climate Camp in August – just four months later – when activists gathered in Blackheath. There, police entered into dialogue with protesters before the event, policed with a "community-style" operation and used virtually no surveillance, stop and search or riot equipment.

But no amount of reform can console Tomlinson's family, who believe police attempted a cover-up over his death. They are still waiting to hear if the Crown Prosecution Service will prosecute the officer who attacked him.

"We wonder why this inquiry only talks about policing of protesters," his widow, Julia, said. "Have they forgotten about Ian, who lost his life at the G20 and was simply a passerby?"

More on this story

More on this story

  • G20 report lays down the law to police on use of force

  • Watchdog report critical of tactics used by police in dealing with protests

  • G20 police chief accused of misleading MPs about undercover mission

  • O'Connor's deja vu policing review

  • Paucity of leadership laid bare in critique of public order policing

Most viewed

Most viewed