I agree the police should maintain public safety. I'm not convinced they should be monitoring public discourse or allocating resources based on that monitoring.
Atlanta PD even agrees with me on that last point:
> Moreover, throughout its intelligence reporting, the department acknowledges that public engagement with online postings does not necessarily correspond with the likely size of an event, suggesting that this monitoring is hardly useful for resource allocation.
If event organizers want to request police presence that's fine. But I see no reason police should be expected or even allowed to use surveillance to predict the needs of such an event.
"I'm not convinced they should be monitoring public discourse or allocating resources based on that monitoring." I have no desire to convince you of this and I definitely haven't been arguing for this at all.
I have no idea what monitoring they should do, just that they do have an interest in knowing major protests in their area.
Edit: put yourself in the shoes of a policeman trying to do your job in the best way you can then ask yourself "should I know when protests are happening in the area I work in and what the general situation is during one?" All I'm saying is that the answer to that question, to me at least, is yes. I don't think police need to entirely stick their heads in the sand in regards to protests. This argument is all stemming from a throwaway line in my original comment and I neither know enough to coherently argue nor care enough to argue specifics of implementation.
Atlanta PD even agrees with me on that last point:
> Moreover, throughout its intelligence reporting, the department acknowledges that public engagement with online postings does not necessarily correspond with the likely size of an event, suggesting that this monitoring is hardly useful for resource allocation.
If event organizers want to request police presence that's fine. But I see no reason police should be expected or even allowed to use surveillance to predict the needs of such an event.