Police Prevention Strategies of Mass Conflict

Mass conflict is one of the violent crimes that, in addition to psychological and social damage, causes irreparable damage to people and severely disturbs social security. This phenomenon has continuously increased significantly over the past two decades. Therefore, this research was carried out with the aim of providing police prevention strategies of mass conflict.
In terms of its objectives this study is of an applied research type and in terms of its nature it is a mixed-method (qualitative-quantitative) study. In the qualitative phase, the participants include professors of Police University, I.R.I. Preventive and Operation Police officers of Tehran, Alborz, West, and East Tehran, who have scientific and practical experience in the field of mass conflict management. They were selected purposefully and after collecting data, in the research process, theoretical saturation was reached in the 18th person. The data collection tool in the qualitative phase was semi-structured interview and the method of data analysis was content analysis. In the quantitative phase, which was carried out as a survey using a questionnaire tool, a statistical sample was taken in a targeted way among the chiefs of preventive police and deputy operations of the provinces and middle and high managers in the prevention police and deputy operations of I.R.I. Police with more than fifteen years of experience. 30 people were selected with management and at least MA degree. In the quantitative phase, based on the collected data, internal factors (IFE) and external factors (EFE) were evaluated, and then by forming the SWOT matrix, SO, ST, WO, and WT strategies were determined. Quantitative Strategy Planning Matrix (QSPM) has also been to prioritize the strategies developed for the prevention of mass conflict.
With a field investigation and a survey of experts in the field of crime prevention, internal factors (weaknesses and strengths) and external factors (opportunities and threats) with 13 weaknesses, 43 strengths (56 internal factors), 18 opportunities, and 16 threats (34 external factors) were presented separately.
After determining the policing situation in the two current and future situations based on the acquired points, the current situation is "mildly aggressive" and the future situation is "strongly aggressive", 23 strategies have been formulated and then prioritized based on the acquired points, which are in accordance with the goals of the research. In order to strategically prevent mass conflict, these strategies should be operationalized.