Conversational Strategy for Crowd Control using Emotional Models

Crowd study has been an important subject for many years to understand the psychology, movement, and group behaviours of crowds. This information has a direct application in managing and controlling a crowd at various mass events, including events intended to be peaceful such as celebratory, sport, or music gatherings and those that turn hostile due to a myriad of causes such as public unrest/disorder, severe weather events, or domestic/international terrorism. In recent years, there have been many protests, with some of them escalating into violent riots such as those in the aftermath of George Floyd's death. Effective strategies for crowd control in a riotous situation can mitigate the aggravating circumstances and reduce any harm to humans and damage to public properties. Controlling an emotionally charged crowd with force can escalate the situation. A heterogeneous view of a crowd suggests that in a protest or mass event, the crowd is not a group of same-minded individuals, but rather multiple subgroups of people with different intentions, attitudes, and emotions. These individuals are still affected by emotional contagion and can become more or less riotous depending on how they are influenced. This paper examines a conversational de-escalation strategy that police officers can perform when they contact protesters (rioters). Emotional models of a crowd were developed and various scenarios were simulated to test how effective the strategy was in dispersing the crowd in a protest.