Clear, hold, build: NGO warns community policing strategy based on colonial tactics

The civil liberties charity Statewatch has said current UK community policing strategy is just a copy-and-paste version of colonial tactics. The so-called ‘clear, hold, build’ (CHB) approach is yet another example of how methods refined in military occupations are being imposed on communities at home. And the main losers are already marginalised communities.

The colonial boomerang

The London-based Statewatch produce and promote:

critical research, policy analysis and investigative journalism to inform debates, movements and campaigns on civil liberties, human rights and democratic standards.

The group’s 11 May analysis piece seeks to explain how centuries of colonial policing have informed current tactics – often under treacly-sounding names like ‘Project Unity’, ‘Respect Rhymney’ and ‘Happy Hopeful Hindpool’!

On the face of it, the three-step approach sounds like fairly standard police work. First, it tells officers to ‘clear’ through:

interventions (arrests and relentless disruption) that target organised crime group members, their networks, business interests, criminality and spheres of influence. The police use all powers and levers to impede their ability to operate. This creates safer spaces to begin restoring community confidence.

Then it moves into the ‘hold’ phase:

interventions, counter-measures and contingency plans to consolidate and stabilise the initial clear phase. This stops remaining or other organised crime group members from capitalising on the vacuum created. It improves community confidence by ensuring spaces remain safe. Visible neighbourhood policing in hotspot areas provides continuing reassurance that police are still present.

Before finally starting to ‘build’:

a single, whole-system approach to delivering community-empowered interventions that tackle drivers of crime, exploitation of vulnerabilities and geographic places where crime occurs. This improves living, working and recreational environment in the community for residents. It empowers them to work with stakeholders to generate resilience and build a safer community.

In reality, Statewatch argues, these processes are direct products of French, British and US empire…

Mowing the lawn

Statewatch said the CHB approach was developed by a former cop-turned-Home Office official named Shane Roberts:

The brutal military origins of CHB are no secret. Official bodies acknowledge that its roots lie in “a three-phase military operating model.” In a February 2024 meeting with a Northampton community group,

Its transfer from the military to the police appears to have been facilitated by a former detective turned Home Office policymaker, Shane Roberts. Roberts describes himself as the “creator” of CHB, responsible for its design, development and implementation as a local policing scheme.

The policy draws on lessons from as far afield as Malaya and Iraq, but also from US figures like Iraq-era General David Petraeus – and there is even major crossover with Israeli tactics deployed against Palestinians:

Anyone familiar with the Israeli occupation of Palestine will likely have heard this terminology of “mowing the lawn” before.

It is therefore unsurprising that CHB has also reportedly been used as the basis of Israeli military operations against Palestinian people in Gaza, with Petraeus himself pitching his exploits in Iraq to Israeli officials.

Roberts even cites French colonial administrator General Herbert Lyautey, who helped ‘pacify’ Morocco:

Roberts describes Lyautey’s career of colonial enforcement for the French empire as “a track record of helping harmonize communities,” noting his ability to work in “challenging social conditions

Roberts adds:

…as Lyautey commented, if these follow-through steps were not taken, efforts would be in vain as simply clipping weeds results in only a temporary illusion of progress: what mattered was addressing the root.

Statewatch argued Lyautey’s words were “a little more brutal”.

and were arguably precursors to the modern-day phraseology of “mowing the lawn.” The marshal argued that “after the plough has passed, the conquered land must be isolated and enclosed so that the good seed that is resistant to the bad can be sown.”

The NGO added:

Despite this language of conquest and domination, Roberts “believed these principles had wider utility and could potentially be replicated in a community-based response to tackle SOC [serious and organised crime].”

Statewatch also noted:

The Home Office concluded that overall CHB can be an “effective approach for reducing crime.”

The ‘new spirit’ of British policing?

Statewatch said the increased mixing of colonial tactics with domestic security measures reflected a “new spirit” in British policing:

This repurposed imperial doctrine represents an introduction of colonial military methods which were originally created to dominate, rather than uplift, local communities.

It provides disturbing insight into the mindset of both government and police institutions which see these tactics as suitable for safeguarding local neighbourhoods.

The group said the policy was part of an “invisible militarisation” of local police:

UK police forces adopting the equipment and appearance of the military have long been a point of focus. However, this strategy transforms community policing into a military process in a way which is both more invasive and harder to spot.

Police have already used CHB to clear out unhoused people in London’s Tower Hamlets:

After clearing an area of tents in which people had been living, the Metropolitan Police published a statement stating that CHB “creates a space that can be used by everyone”.

Police forces across the west were always a martial force. They exist primarily to protect property and the capitalist status quo, victimising the exploited and racialised classes on behalf of the wealthy. And colonising powers like Britain have always used their vassal states as a violent laboratory, sharpening techniques and technologies of oppression for use at home.

The military honed these methods further in recent episodes of violent occupation like Iraq and Palestine. UK police are now deploying them against domestic communities. And the first victims will be the most marginalised.

Featured image via the Canary