When Protests Erupt: Balancing Speech and Safety

This spring saw a surge of protests - not only on campuses across the country, but at state capitols, city halls, courthouses and businesses. As political tensions rise, we can expect more this summer.

While Americans are exercising their First Amendment rights, protests put law enforcement in a challenging position.

Officers are tasked with two essential, and often competing, responsibilities: protecting free speech and maintaining public safety. And when emotions run high, it doesn’t take much for speech to edge into actions that threaten order. In those moments, efforts to ensure safety can be misunderstood as efforts to silence speech—fueling more conflict. 

To navigate that tension, officers can use Insight Policing skills to communicate safety needs without compromising speech. The key is to notice and verify conflict behavior—like obstruction, resistance, or defiance—and get curious about it. What’s the concern driving the behavior? What matters most to the person right now?

Allowing a person to voice their concerns opens lines of communication, which reduces tension and reveals critical information that can lead to voluntary compliance - whether that means stepping back from a line, leaving a prohibited space, or even submitting to an arrest. 

So, while strong emotions that go along with public protest make protests difficult to police, we can remember that getting curious goes a long way toward both protecting speech and ensuring safety.