EDL & UAF March: What To Expect?

4 February 2012, 10:56 | Updated: 30 March 2016, 13:50

Police have released details of what the policing operation in Leicester city centre will look like tomorrow ( Saturday 4th).

Police have told Capital it will be a significant policing operation which will see officers drafted in from a number of forces across the country, including Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire, to help out. They say a lot of work has gone into the planning to ensure that there is minimum disruption to the city.

Message from the police

We appreciate the use of dogs, mounted horse units and public order protective clothing can appear a little intimidating to people who have never seen it before - particularly if it is all in one place.

We hope that if people know what to expect on Saturday then it might prevent some of the more common fears and misconceptions.

There will be a lot of people out in Leicester city centre on Saturday who have never seen a policed procession and won't know what that looks like. There will be more police officers and more police vehicles than usual. In the City centre all officers will be deployed in protective clothing which will not look dissimilar to normal uniform.  Should the situation become volatile then senior officers may decide to deploy officers with more protective equipment.  Essentially this means that officers will wear additional pads and a protective helmet and may carry a protective shield.

People may see a number of police vehicles travelling in convoy. This doesn't mean necessarily that there is anything happening, we will often move our vehicles all together. It's just logistics.

A leaflet explaining police tactics used in marches and demonstrations has been circulated to a huge number of community contacts, businesses and stakeholders. It is also available to download on our website.  Information about the possible use of special stop search powers is also available.

We aim to keep the general public up to date with the latest developments via the website, Twitter and Facebook on the day. We?ll be providing regular updates on how the policing operation is progressing with hourly audio updates direct from the control room.