G20: the new security era Police were out in force again on Sunday, despite predicted high temperatures and well behaved protesters on Saturday. Photo: Robert Shakespeare There were more police officers than delegates or protesters, the possession of eggs was a criminal offence and the plans were two years in the making. But get used to it, security experts say. The mammoth security and policing operation for the G20 summit in Brisbane was hailed a success on Sunday, with Deputy Commissioner Ross Barnett saying they had set a precedent for large events and protests. "This really is an opportunity for all of us to set a new standard in police and community relationships on the global stage," he said. Commissioner Ian Stewart said the United States Secret Service even praised the police's handling of the event, saying he shook US President Barack Obama's hand on Sunday morning and received a "very, very complimentary" assessment of how the operation went. That operation included 6000 police officers, 1500 of which were from inter-state and New Zealand, an eye-watering arsenal of police machinery in the water and sky, special legislation to ban protest items such as face coverings and eggs, and heavy policing on the streets with officers stopping anyone to search their bags and take their details down in little black books. In a sign of just how large such operations have become, there was six times more perimeter fencing and twice as many police than the APEC summit in Sydney in 2007. Conversely, there was just a fifth of the number of protesters this time around. Deputy Commissioner Barnett said there was also a level of co-operation never seen before, including months of conversations with protest groups, resulting in "goodwill and trust on both sides." Protesters were not allowed to step an inch out of line and many were questioned for wearing headscarves and gas masks but the much-touted bans were relaxed and protests went ahead peacefully. Protest organiser Ewan Saunders said the climate of fear and over-policing signalled the death of democratic protest, however security expert Clive Williams said it was now widely-accepted as the model for large events in Australia. "In retrospect, [the police operation in Brisbane] looks like over-reach but it was probably a reasonable assessment based on what the police knew," said Professor Williams, an adjunct professor at Macquarie University's Centre for Policing, Intelligence and Counter-Terrorism. The problem is they don't really know what level of opposition they're going to come up against. The unknown element is the anarchists... and the fixated individuals, usually referred to as nutters, who act individually. A high-ranking NSW police officer said over-kill was necessary in an age of terrorism and "lone wolf" attacks. "The world climate has changed, we have to have over-kill," he said. By Sunday morning, Queensland police had issued 24 exclusion orders and charged 11 people. Terry O'Gorman, president of the Australian Council for Civil Liberties, praised the "professionalism of the police negotiation and protest management" however policing academic Michael Kennedy, from the University of Western Sydney, warned against too much back-patting. "To say this is a panacea is not right because Queensland, traditionally, has not been the seat of demonstration," he said. Sure, they've done a good job but they don't have a big student population, they don't have a radical population. It's easy to police a bunch of pensioners.