Responsible and effective public order activities will be evidenced by the proactive policing of order, rather than the reactive policing of disorder. What is increasingly looking like the inability on the part of Denver to engage with the protesters and include them in the planning process rather than alienating them does not bode well for proactive policing of order.

First of all, the changes are very visible. There is an increase in uniformed officers and K-9 support units, in the stations and on the trains. I spoke to a number of the uniformed officers and they sounded pleased and motivated by the new approaches.

Advice for business professionals, government workers and non-profits who may suddenly find themselves in politically volatile and potentially dangerous situations oversees.

Everything done to date on the matter of misuse of force by private military companies has the whiff of politics – of too-little too-late and knee-jerk response. If the government and the Congress are to face up to this problem properly, they need to put in place a regime that creates hurdles for entry, based on a clear set of professional standards, and then enforce those standards through licensing and audits.

The problem here is not simply that Blackwater USA’s personnel killed three guards. Even more troubling is the fact that the State Department, in not addressing such incidents, was tacitly endorsing and therefore facilitating a culture among its security details that placed no premium on life.