Riot Police Uniforms?

[Blofeld]

Just got some Offensive Miniatures Riot Police and I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions for riot police uniforms beyond the normal dark blue and black. They're for an imagination so probably the stranger the better!
Thanks for any help
Blofeld

[commissarmoody]

Well what's the history of your nation's police force?  Are they  a separate branch from normal police, or part of a different organization?
What uniforms do the regular police wear?
If they are part of the federal police force maybe a camo style uniform?
Or maybe colors biased on the nations older military uniforms.
Other commen colors I have seen for police uniforms are a forest or Olive green, White, grey and kaki.

[Dr Bogo]

Russian OMON riot police have snazzy blue camouflaged uniforms worn under standard black riot gear and would work well for any Post-Soviet or Russian supplied police force or gendarmerie.

[CptJake]

When we were buying riot gear for our QRF unit in Panama, we purposely chose black because it was intimidating.   The gear is there to protect you if you need it, but if you can intimidate the crowd enough you can avoid violence (though I used some very out of the box tactics to defuse a crowd with cheap hot dogs and KoolAid instead of intimidation when possible).

So, from that perspective, you will want to pick a color scheme that the mob/crowd will be intimidated by.   Maybe 'cultural' influences that make a certain scheme more intimidating in your imagi-nation.  Maybe a deep red so blood does not show.   Maybe green is known to anger the 'cause' of the mob/crowd so the riot cops intentionally wear green to entice confrontation.   Maybe the cop HQ/Admin types have been dealing with replacing expensive pilfered 'cool black' uniforms/armor so got the latest batch in pink to decrease the desire to snag a set.   

[carlos marighela]

In Brazil the various state police forces (Polícia Militar) all have a Batalhão de Polícia de Choque or Batalhão de Choque (shock battalion) that function primarily as public order and riot police. Go to a football match or a demo and you'll see them. They tend to favour camouflage uniforms, as often as not urban versions of US Woodland in greys and blues and black. Quite a few now sport urban toned, pixelted uniforms too In Rio there's a fairly recent adjunct, the Batalhão de Grande Eventos specifically set up for major events. They wear riot gear and a black uniform.

In Chile the carabineros wear a sort of brownish olive uniform. Their riot police wear a fatigue style uniform in the same colour. As a side note I marched with and later addressed a union demonstration in Santiago many years ago which gave me a good chance to see their riot police up close.  Olive green helmets and riot kit makes a change from your usual blue or black. Try googling 'riot police Chile'.

Riot police Rio and São Paulo: