Coordinated crackdowns? Protest policing and diffusion

The increasing dispersion and frequency of protest policing techniques like 'kettling', less lethal weapons, and long term infiltration of protesters have raised questions about the level of coordination amongst police organizations, both nationally and internationally (see Naomi Wolf vs. Joshua Holland, debate in the Guardian etc).  Analysing evidence from the policing of protest events in the US and Canada between 1995-2011, this paper argues that professional organizations like the International Association of Chiefs of Police and the Police Executive Research Forum are playing a key role in facilitating diffusion. However in order to understand the increasing convergence of strategies, one must understand the operation of such professional organizations within changes to global political economy.