Scotland Yard adopted new tactics during TUC action after criticism for its aggressive policing at previous protests

Scotland Yard's tweet filtered through the crowd at 7.57pm. "The Met police thank those outside Fortnum & Mason for their patience. They will not be held for any longer than necessary."

Not everyone "kettled" by police cordons outside the department store on Piccadilly agreed their temporary incarceration was necessary. But few could deny that an internet savvy and seemingly less aggressive style of public order policing was on display on Saturday by the Met, which is anticipating five weeks of intense scrutiny during the inquest into the death of Ian Tomlinson, which begins on Monday.

A jury will consider whether a Met officer unlawfully killed the newspaper seller who collapsed and died after being attacked at the G20 protests in 2009. Senior Met officers will effectively be put on trial in hearings that could prove highly damaging to the force's public order unit.

Despite its critics, the Met will feel it can say it has changed since the brutal scenes outside the Bank of England two years ago.

There have been complaints of disproportionate policing on Saturday, particularly late at night around Trafalgar Square, when police forcibly cleared partying protesters.

The Met claims to have come under "sustained attack" and said the area was eventually cleared by around 2.45am.

There were 84 reported injuries during the protests, including 31 police – none are thought to have been serious.

Much of the public's anger was directed at the media, rather than the Met, for exaggerating the scale and significance of the vandalism.

Police chose a light-touch approach to the main TUC march and the result was that more than a quarter of a million people walked to the Hyde Park rally peacefully.

Officers deployed a new tactic for dealing with those splinter elements that roamed the West End targeting banks, multinationals and, at times, police officers. Rather than containing large crowds in impermeable kettles for hours on end – often a source of rising tensions – police encircled smaller groups in "mini kettles" and soon allowed them to filter out.

With tweets informing protesters that "the last trains will be leaving central London shortly" and requesting the public to contribute to surveys on the police's performance, the Met's corporate face was also less adversarial.

Journalists were allowed freedom of movement and the attempts to contain crowds appeared to have been preceded by clear evidence of criminality.

It was notable that Commander Bob Broadhurst, architect of some of the most controversial acts of kettling in recent years, including the G20 and the student protests, was not making some of they key decisions, instead taking on a role of spokesperson for the policing operation.