Designing a Law Enforcement Model to Prevent the Formation of Illegal Gatherings and Control them

Preventing the occurrence and formation of illegal gatherings will lead to the reduction of social, economic and even political costs. The aim of the current research was to find an efficient model in preventing the formation and control of illegal gatherings based on the local knowledge of experts.

In terms of its objectives this study is of an applied research type and in terms of its nature, it is considered as an exploratory research that is conducted using descriptive-analytical method with Delphi technique in two rounds and a consensus was reached among the research experts. The statistical population included police experts in Tehran, and the sample was 15 individuals who were selected using a targeted sampling method. The research tools included interviews and researcher-made questionnaires based on experts' opinions. The reliability of the interviews was confirmed using Guba and Lincoln criteria and the validity of the questionnaires was confirmed by the face and content methods. The interview was analyzed using the theme analysis method, and the questionnaire was analyzed using mean calculation with SPSS software.

The findings of the research showed that in order to prevent the formation of illegal gatherings and control them, a law enforcement model can be conceptualized in two dimensions of illegal union-labor and political-security gatherings. In the dimension of illegal union-labor gatherings, the components of the four principles of hierarchy (responsibility, guidance, support and action), and directing the protesters to the relevant apparatus and predicting a suitable place for the protesters were identified. In the dimension of illegal political-security gatherings, the components of "psychological and enlightenment operations, virtual space operations, intelligence operations and law enforcement operations" were identified.

The results of the research indicate that in order to prevent and control illegal gatherings before the gathering turns into a disturbance and is forced to face additional costs, based on the developed model, measures such as accountability, guidance, support and law enforcement operations, psychological operations and enlightenment, virtual and intelligence space are necessary.