As a direct result of Saltley, the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) established the National Reporting Centre (NRC) which would be "operationalised in times of industrial or political crisis [to provide] a coordinated national response to demands on policing". The NRC assumed the power – "endorsed by the Home Secretary" – to deploy police officers from any force in the country to areas of "high tension" and "across force boundaries without the knowledge or consent of local police authorities". Speaking in October 1984, John Alderson, the former deputy chief constable of Dorset Police, criticised the NRC as a ""de facto" national police". In addition, events in the early 1980s, such as the national steel strike of 1980 and the riots in inner-city areas such as Brixton and Toxteth, had led police forces to train officers to deal with mass protests differently. For example, officers during the 1981 riots had been left using dustbin lids to protect themselves from missiles, whereas the police at Orgreave had all been equipped with riot shields.