Read full Disclaimer. The latest disclosures will come after months of allegations about policing and race in modern-day Britain following the mass Black Lives Matter protests during which more than 250,000 people took to the streets. It is an open question how HN30 views the rights of those who were targeted by undercovers on her watch, and whether how she feels is anything like the intrusion those campaigners feel? Whistleblower from UK covert police unit reveals spying on workers These were, 2 3 Detective Sergeants, who acted as cover officers. Its officers included Mark Kennedy who was also active in London. Wed like to set additional cookies to understand how you use GOV.UK, remember your settings and improve government services. [9], Officer A 'from the SDS was never suspected by the people he worked and socialised with, He spoke out after his duties with the SDS were terminated, claiming that he feels the public should know what police tactics they could be subject to. What to consider before making a submission to the Undercover Policing Inquiry. The last years of the Special Demonstration Squad - insight from HN30 Storefronts in the UK were made to look like crime scenes: warning tape was pinned to storefronts below posters of a man that was split in two with one half wearing a policemans cap. The organization was operational until 2011. Recruits would vanish into a secret undercover world for years, handing in their warrant cards and never visiting a police station. Special Demonstration Squad. Special Demonstration Squad ran for 40 years without top officers In the late 1990s around the time the unit was gathering information about Stephen Lawrences family the SDS was presenting descriptions of its operations on one side of A4 paper to be rubber-stamped by its superiors. The Met said the public inquiry represents a real opportunity to provide as complete a picture as possible of how the SDS came to be. The risk assessment notes: Although she was a supervisor and had been a cover officer for N18, N72 was the operational [Detective Inspector] and took responsibility for the matter. Elsewhere, the assessment notes: the closure of the unit in 2008 by N314 and N275 was, in the opinion of N30, unfair and the cause of some friction with the remainder of the management team. You have accepted additional cookies. The NPOIU's governance changed during its operation. Not least how it networked the broad left through ad hoc committees which allowed political differences among the various Trotskyist, communist, Maoist and anarchist groups involved to be temporarily set aside. He is now urging the police to give the families "full and unhindered access" to all the SDS and Special Branch records held on them "so that they themselves can determine what the purpose of the spying actually was". HN90 as Mark Kerry, infiltrated the Socialist Workers Party and City of London Anti-Apartheid Group from 1988 to 1992.). Undercover: The True Story of Britain's Secret Police - review It is a classic case of how the secret state behaves badly when it believes that no one will ever find out what it is up to. Stephen Lawrence: Secret Metropolitan Police unit the Special Demonstration Squad compiled information on the murdered teenager's family A rogue undercover police unit 'hoovered up' a staggering. Scotland Yard shut down undercover police unit because it broke rules Her sweet spot is the intersections of beauty with current culture, whether it's music, movies, or social media. While we have focused on the Trotskyist groups dominating the protests at the time, more needs to be done on profiling other leading players such as Manchandas Revolutionary Marxist-Leninist League, the anarchists, Young Communist League, as well as the smaller factions. 25 January 2022 PA Media Kate Wilson said senior officers had been aware of her relationship with Mark Kennedy By Sandish Shoker & PA news agency BBC News An activist deceived into a relationship. I remember in October 68 (which I was on) them giving out a leaflet called Why we are not marching. The inquiry will focus on the deployment of about 140 undercover police officers to spy on over 1,000 political groups over more than 40 years. The last years of the Special Demonstration Squad - insight from HN30 - Undercover Research GroupUndercover Research Group Former Special Demonstration Squad officer, 'HN30' gives insight into the last years of the unit, its focus on anarchist groups & G8 protests, and the circumstances of its closure. The 2009 review concluded that SDS directed its own operations with significant tactical latitude with minimal organisational constraints. News stories, speeches, letters and notices, Reports, analysis and official statistics, Data, Freedom of Information releases and corporate reports. Crown copyright. Submitted by rat on July 4, 2016. Dnal ODriscoll, Undercover Research Group, 14 April 2018. Or the 2018 Strategic Review of the Inspectorate of Constabulary in Scotland. [5] You sell soaps, get off your high horses and stick to what youre good at, because politics definitely isnt it, Grace Coop, a commenter on Lushs official statement wrote about the campaign. Undercover, with Rob Evans and Paul Lewis, Tuesday to open the first public inquiry into, formed long-term relationships with female campaigners and had, the unit planted more than 100 undercover officers in more than 460, intricate fake personas and pretended to be campaigners, the unit was gathering information about Stephen Lawrences family, previously said the unit had spun so far out of control it had lost its moral, about the SDSs activities started to appear. It debated and discussed for a long time, moving from Rosa Luxembourg ist assumptions on political organisation, to an explicitly Leninist democratic- centralist stucture as a Party. They also ask for three things to be released: the cover names of the officers, the names of the groups they spied on, and the personal files of victims. Javid has not received the campaign well and tweeted his concerns with it last week. Six years later, a public inquiry into the bungled investigation into Lawrences murder famously concluded the Met was institutionally racist. Learn About Districts - California Special Districts Association - CSDA She was a 22-year-old activist at the time of her relationship with Lambert who was using the pseudonym Bob Robinson and she gave birth to their son in 1985. The text on the poster read Paid to Lie. Upon closer inspection, you can see the faux-police tape reads Police Have Crossed the Line., Critics were quick to voice concerns that the campaign was anti-police and anti-state. When and how are cover names published? version of this document in a more accessible format, please email, Find out about the Energy Bills Support Scheme, Investigation into links between Special Demonstration Squad and Home Office, WW1 Australian VC recipient Rupert Vance (Mick) Moon, List of ports using the Goods Vehicle Movement Service. [7][9] In 1972 it was renamed the Special Demonstration Squad. Douglas, a boxing promoter, died after being struck on the head by a police baton. The Special Demonstration Squad ( SDS) was an undercover unit of Greater London 's Metropolitan Police Service (MPS or the Met), set up in 1968 with the approval of the Wilson government, [1] to infiltrate British protest groups. Elsewhere, it has been learned that Simon Wellings was also active in the G8 protests. Special Demonstration Squad - Powerbase Insp Andrew George, the president of the National Black Police Association, said the revelations expected at the inquiry would strain already difficult police and community relations. But for some of the victims, it's been encouraging to see a brand like Lush get involved in this movement. The review adds: In some instances apparent ethical/moral dilemmas were simply not addressed as they formed part of the accepted consequences of such operational deployments.. The last years of the Special Demonstration Squad insight from HN30. 1968 - Protest, Special Branch and the founding of the Special [5] The Anti-Nazi League, Youth Against Racism, the British National party and the National Front are all believed to have been infiltrated by the SDS. Operation Herne Insp. It finds that in the vast majority of cases the SDS dealt with the problems internally and on occasions informally. Everything You Need to Know About Lush's Crazy Controversial #Spycops Campaign, These 9 Detangling Brushes Will Save Your Hair, Campaign Opposing Police Surveillance (COPS). Those in charge of the undercover officers operated, he says, in such secrecy and isolation from the rest of the police that outsiders were unable to see how the unit was running out of control. Read about our approach to external linking. [5] It operated from 1968 to 2008. Special livery planned as Williams get set to celebrate 800th Grand Prix milestone at Silverstone and Budapest races . Initially formed in the 1960s to target antiwar protesters, the Special Demonstration Squad had morphed in the post-9/11 era into a division with near limitless resources whose mandate was to combat "domestic extremism." Over the last decade the unit's budget doubled, consuming close to $50 million in taxpayer money. It covertly infiltrated UK protest groups while working closely with the Crown Prosecution Service. 2023 Hearst Magazine Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved. The unprecedented payment resulted from a legal battle with women who said they were duped into relationships with officers who were spying on them. Quite simply, they lost their moral compass and as a result nothing was out of bounds. Creedon has harsh words for the leaders of Special Branch, blaming them for allowing the SDS undercover officers to gather intelligence on the families in what he calls "a largely unchecked and unregulated way". He said the unit's. Video, 00:00:43Australian skateboarder, 13, makes history with rare trick, Russian missile strike hits restaurants in Ukrainian city. It is now widely known that undercover officers were sent. The Special Demonstration Squad (SDS) of the Metropolitan Police was established in July 1968 initially as a response to the growing movement in Britain against the war in Vietnam. The Special Demonstration Squad (SDS) is the undercover spy unit of the London police that was created back in 1968 to infiltrate British protest groups. In one sense, it should be no surprise that Special Branch wanted to hoard this information that was, after all, their job. The SDS was established in 1968 to "deal with the lack of police knowledge of what was happening on demonstrations", states a film interview from The Guardian. HN30 presents herself as being proud of. Towards the end of its 40-year existence, the unit had become isolated from the rest of the police. In March 2018, the Undercover Policing Inquiry published the Special Demonstration Squad Tradecraft Manual, written in 1995, and updated in 1996. A fuller account can be found in our profile of Jason Bishop, but we put here HN30s side of things: The last line is key. The Special Demonstration Squad (SDS) had such a furtive existence that many senior officers knew nothing about it. A total of 762,459 was paid between 2004 and 2008. [18] [3], Similar questions were raised by the Strathclyde Police's attempts to deter Plane Stupid activists from taking action against the aviation industry. [1] It was a unit of the Metropolitan Police Service with a remit to prevent disorder. Undercover operations are understood to have targeted campaigners protesting over the death of Blair Peach, an anti-fascist activist who was killed by police in 1979. A source involved in the discussions to close it down has previously said the unit had spun so far out of control it had lost its moral compass and become a force within a force. The Special Demonstration Squad (SDS) is the undercover spy unit of the London police that was created back in 1968 to infiltrate British protest groups. Met Police: Special Demonstration Squad in spotlight, Met's top secret squad in spotlight. A quite shocking vacuum of any supervision and leadership allowed this to happen.. More than 200 witnesses, ranging from the undercover officers, their superiors, Whitehall officials and politicians, are due to give evidence to the inquiry, which is due to run until at least 2023. [3], Legal documents suggest Kennedy's activities, working for the NPOIU, went beyond those of a passive spy, prompting questions as to whether his role in organising and helping to fund protests meant he turned into an agent provocateur, suggests the BBC NewsNight interview. The whistleblower Peter Francis, an undercover officer who spied on anti-racist groups, has previously said his lowest point morally was attending a candlelit vigil outside Kennington police station in south London for the Brian Douglas justice campaign in 1995. The Special Demonstration Squad (SDS) was an undercover unit of Greater London's Metropolitan Police Service (MPS or the Met), set up in 1968 with the approval of the Wilson government,[1] to infiltrate British protest groups. The series was scheduled to be produced by Spanner Films with Tony Garnett as the executive producer. .css-5rg4gn{display:block;font-family:NeueHaasUnica,Arial,sans-serif;font-weight:normal;margin-bottom:0.3125rem;margin-top:0;-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;}@media (any-hover: hover){.css-5rg4gn:hover{color:link-hover;}}@media(max-width: 48rem){.css-5rg4gn{font-size:1rem;line-height:1.3;letter-spacing:-0.02em;margin:0.75rem 0 0;}}@media(min-width: 40.625rem){.css-5rg4gn{font-size:1rem;line-height:1.3;letter-spacing:0.02rem;margin:0.9375rem 0 0;}}@media(min-width: 64rem){.css-5rg4gn{font-size:1rem;line-height:1.4;margin:0.9375rem 0 0.625rem;}}@media(min-width: 73.75rem){.css-5rg4gn{font-size:1rem;line-height:1.4;}}These 9 Detangling Brushes Will Save Your Hair, 12 Best Dewy Foundations for a Radiant Complexion, The Best Ways to Use Jojoba Oil in Your Hair, The 8 Best Argan Oil Products for Every Hair Type, I Tried the Viral Detangling Brush #HairTok Loves, I Tried the Metal Mascara Wand All Over TikTok. Read full Disclaimer. It has been at crisis point this year.. Email rob.evans@theguardian.com, or (using a non-work phone) use Signal or WhatsApp to message +44 7584 640566. [1][22], In early 2014 a television drama series was announced based on the Special Demonstration Squad officers and their long-term relationships with activists upon whom they were spying. HN53 was in position from 1998 to 2005 and seemingly succeeded by HN72 himself an undercover in the 1980s. Insp. For privacy reasons Twitter needs your permission to be loaded. Eveline Lubbers, 23 March 2018. Much of our understanding of the groups at the time is built on our reconstruction from written material and visits to archives. [10], The SDS's first operation was surveillance of anti-Vietnam war protesters, the Vietnam Solidarity Campaign. [4], Unlike regular undercover officers, members of the SDS do not have to gather evidence with a view to prosecuting their targets, The Guardian article explains. On 23 October 2014, the Metropolitan Police Service agreed to pay 425,000 to a woman called Jacqui whose child was fathered by former SDS operative Bob Lambert; she did not know at the time of their relationship that he was an undercover police officer. The victims of the SDS are, almost a decade later, still seeking answers and full disclosure about the events that took place. Judge will hear evidence on undercover operations against campaigns such as Stephen Lawrence. Special Demonstration Squad - Wikispooks Scotland Yard spied on critics of police corruption - The Guardian The undercover officers, as well as their commanding officers, are due to give evidence at the inquiry, which is being led by the retired judge Sir John Mitting. Further information can be found in the Inquirys cookie policy. Does the Army Have a Flight Team? What to Know About Military Flying 2018 is the fiftieth anniversary of the events of 1968, a year of upheaval and revolutionary politics, of huge cultural shift and protest. [3] There is a renewed focus on the activities of Scotland Yard's top secret Special Demonstration Squad, which infiltrated protest groups for nearly 40 years until it was disbanded six years ago. It has been an exquisite pleasure to hold original copies of planning documents and manifestos by groups of the time, which for all we may differ these days, are part of our political ancestry. You can change your cookie settings at any time. During that year the Vietnam Solidarity Campaign (VSC) organised two major demonstrations, in March and October. paying homage to the squad's British heritage and late founder Sir Frank Williams, before showcasing a special emblem in Hungary. Pingback: Officer HN30: Insights into the spycop schemes final years Freedom News. However, it was forced to change its position in August 2014 after a legal ruling. Special districts are local governments created by the people of a community to deliver specialized services essential to their health, safety, economy and well-being. In 2016, Steel tracked down Dines in Australia; he apologised for the emotional suffering caused. The undercover officers adopted intricate fake personas and pretended to be campaigners for spells of usually five years. Lets start from the top. That the two go hand in hand is no coincidence, connected as they are by the anti-Vietnam War protests which dominated politics in the UK that year both fed by and sparking an upsurge in radical politics, particularly among students. It paints an unflattering picture of the SDS, finding that a number of ethical/moral dilemmas arose from the activity of SDS operatives and the management of them. Both PSOOL and COPS have also already launched a petition asking the UKs new Home Secretary, Sajid Javid, to make some major changes to the current public inquiry. A community forms a special district, which are political subdivisions authorized through a state's statutes, to provide specialized services the local city or county do not . 1968 sets the stage, both for the political groups, but also the police targeting them. Thus, it would appear that someone has provided misleading information. At the time (I was still in the IS milieu,) we saw Black Dwarf as an explicitly IMG vehicle. Undercover Policing Inquiry | Metropolitan Police This file may not be suitable for users of assistive technology. Well send you a link to a feedback form. The review found that the unit known as the Special Demonstration Squad (SDS) operated without tight controls, ignored ethical issues and gathered information that had no use in fighting crime. Why is the Inquiry happening? There is another anomaly here. No satisfactory answers were obtained as to who they were, or to which department they were accountable. [3] They're known as the "hairies" due to the fact that its members do not have to abide by usual police regulations about their appearance. The Special Demonstration Squad (SDS) was an undercover unit formed by the Metropolitan Police's Special Branch. Today two activists from the Animal Liberation Front who were jailed for firebombing department stores in the 1980s came forward to say they intended to appeal. [14] In 2013, former SDS undercover officer Peter Francis revealed that the SDS investigated the family of Stephen Lawrence in order to seek possible evidence to smear Lawrence with in case of racially motivated public order issues. Special Demonstration Squad - Wikiwand All rights reserved. Police spy unit caused 'outrage and pain' as it infiltrated leftwing Peter Francis, who infiltrated anti-racist groups between 1993 and 1997 for the SDS, has shed unprecedented light on his former unit, illuminating, for instance, how undercover officers routinely formed sexual relationships with campaigners and stole the identities of dead children. HN30 claims these officers had no intimate relationships on her watch. They could have closed the unit much earlier and more fairly. 2. Today we are releasing through SpecialBranchFiles.uk the first stage of our study of undercover officers in 1968, assembling what is known and piecing together the fragments on policing we have of this important period. N30 stated that in her opinion senior management used the perceived mismanagement of this arrest to close the unit. HN30s risk assessment also gives insight into SDS activities during the demonstrations at the 2005 G8 Summit in Scotland. #WeStandWithLush. Doreen Lawrence, who was a victim of an undercover Spycop, has been heading up the #WeStandWithLush movement. While there is a significant amount of material available about 1968 and its long lasting effects, there are considerably fewer studies of the groups that channelled the energies of the time, and even less on how they interacted with the police. The first of these was at the SDS office, and was to de-brief the weekends activity; the second was at the units secret cover flat and was to task the undercover for the upcoming weekend. Special livery planned as Williams get set to celebrate 800th Grand [4] Video, 00:02:18, Up Next. Women need protection from undercover officers | Owen Jones, Met police to pay more than 400,000 to victim of undercover officer, Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning, 2023 Guardian News & Media Limited or its affiliated companies. In the 1970s and 80s, the SDSs superiors only scrutinised its operations after they had happened and then only in an annual report justifying the continued expenditure provided by them for the operation. For example, nine SDS officers were covertly deployed into a 1968 public meeting of 250 campaigners deciding the route of a major anti-war demonstration. Please do get in contact. What to consider before making a submission to the Undercover Policing Inquiry. Likewise, we do not spend much time on what happened on the day of the big protests themselves. Last month, the first Inquiry hearings into the activities of the secret Special Demonstration Squad (SDS), including spying on the Lawrence family, took place onlinesix years after the. Police services employ Special Constables in various roles including court security, scenes of crime examination, community engagement, prisoner transportation, and more. Trust and confidence is already low. In these politically fraught times, all sorts of entertainers and athletes have been told to stay out of politics or "shut up and dribble." 4. Yet, what about those whose private lives were recorded in Special Branch for simply exercising the right to protest? Mr Carey said: "The Metropolitan Police are prepared to criticise the conduct of an individual officer, Bob Lambert. Finally, we are aware we may not have got things entirely correct. Dont include personal or financial information like your National Insurance number or credit card details. In a rare moment of frankness Merlyn Rees, who was home secretary in the 1970s, said the role of Special Branch was "to collect information on those who I think cause problems for the state". [3] According to the The Guardian, the unit consists of 10 full-time undercover operatives who are given new identities, and provided with flats, vehicles and "cover" jobs while working in the field for up to five years at a time. The lack of progress of this inquiry to date doesnt give me confidence in its approach or its outcome. Two undercover policing units - the Special Demonstration Squad (SDS) and the National Public Order Intelligence Unit (NPOIU) - have particular prominence for the Inquiry; however, its work is not restricted to these units. The U.S. Navy's flight demonstration squad is known for its incredible and high-pressure flight maneuvers, seen at air shows all around the country. The inquiry will also examine surveillance of those calling for justice for Joy Gardner, who died in 1993 after being bound and gagged by deportation officers, Ricky Reel, who died in 1997 after a clash with racists, and Michael Menson, who was burned to death in 1997 by a racist attacker who almost escaped justice because police said Menson had doused himself in petrol. It covertly infiltrated UK protest groups while working closely with the Crown Prosecution Service. Video, 00:02:47, Ros Atkins on five impacts of the Wagner mutiny, Watch 'curious' whale follow kayaker in Sydney. And these werent just casual Tinder datesthe undercover police sometimes got so entwined in the lives of the people they were duping that they proposed or fathered children in their fake relationship. 1970s - Mystic Seaport Museum From this we see the unit was quite small in this period with a total back office staff of approximately six, suggesting a tight unit which probably shared responsibilities with each other. The final and most intriguing aspect of the material from HN30 is about the closure of the unit. Photograph: E Hamilton West, Police chiefs were aware six years ago that undercover unit 'had lost moral compass', Undercover police spy accused of encouraging activist to crime, Metpolice to pay more than 400,000 to victim of undercover officer, Activist who discovered father of her son was an undercover officer: 'I shared childbirth with a ghost', Undercover police gathered evidence on 18 grieving families, Secret Met police unit held information on 18 campaigns for justice, 1,200 undercover police officers operating across England and Wales, Undercover officers will not be charged over relationships with women, Undercover police spied on grieving families of De Menezes, Groce and Reel, Police forced to name undercover officers who duped women. SDS engaged in sexual relationships with protest organisers, National Coordinator for Domestic Extremism, National Extremism Tactical Co-ordination Unit, "Nine Met officers spied on public anti-war meeting in 1968, inquiry hears", "Undercover operations 'totally outside the bounds of a civilised society' lawyer", "Former girlfriends of undercover policemen appear to stand good chance of winning", "Mark Kennedy case: CPS accused of suppressing key evidence", "Police spies' use of dead children's identities was common, MPs told", "Undercover officer rekindled relationship seven years later, inquiry told", "Police spies stole identities of dead children", "Police 'smear' campaign targeted Stephen Lawrence's friends and family", "Undercover policemen, undercover lovers", "Stephen Lawrence's father demands judicial inquiry into police spying", "Trauma of spy's girlfriend: 'like being raped by the state', "Met pays 425,000 to mother of undercover policeman's child", "High court dismisses woman's attempt to prosecute police spy", "Undercover UK police spy apologises after being tracked down by woman he deceived", "Police spying inquiry to examine targeting of UK black justice groups", Deputy Mayor of London for Policing and Crime, Specialist, Organised & Economic Crime Command, Human Exploitation and Organised Crime Command, Metropolitan Police Specialist Training Centre, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special_Demonstration_Squad&oldid=1160252184, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 4.0, This page was last edited on 15 June 2023, at 09:42.