Police officers took on a multitude of roles: probation officer, social worker, schools liaison, disaster manager, event steward, to name but a few.
Richard Garside, director of the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies, says the increase in police budgets in recent decades has had the effect of "crowding out" other professions, and police officers have adopted all manner of roles – "probation officer, social worker, schools liaison, disaster manager, event steward".
Extra courses have been organised for people interested in becoming event stewards ahead of the 2012 Olympics.
This may do something to address recent accusations of mission creep within the police service: cuts to other public services have led police officers to pick up some of the pieces, acting as social workers, probation officers and events stewards.
"We had a junior eisteddfod this morning and some of the sixth form were stewarding the event when news started to come in," he said.
He has since led the Guardian's coverage of the 2016 presidential election, while stewarding major news events including the Orlando and San Bernardino shootings.
Fortunately a concerned citizen spotted him and alerted one of the event's stewards, who immediately called the police.
Two rapes and a sexual assault were reported at Latitude in Suffolk last month, a family-orientated event, while stewards at this year's Camp Bestival in Dorset reported numerous incidents of vandalism and assault.
Both events are being stewarded and the organisers are liaising with police.
However, Westminster council says it will issue an order only when the organisers of the march have produced a traffic management plan outlining who will steward the event and how.
