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UK: Newham Monitoring Project (NMP): Monitoring Olympics policing during the 2012 'Security Games': A report on community-based legal observing organised by NMP

17 January 2014

"This report documents the experiences of local people, particularly in relation to policing, as witnessed by our team of volunteers. It also sets out our experiences over the course of the Olympics and Paralympics during the summer of 2012 and what lessons others can draw for organising community-based monitoring of the policing of major events."

Full report: Monitoring Olympics policing during the 2012 'Security Games': A report on community-based legal observing organised by NMP (pdf)

Summary: The 2012 Olympic Games, held in Stratford, east London, was accompanied by the largest peacetime military and security operation since the Second World War, with a budget of around £553 million. The number of security personnel employed is estimated at 23,700 on the event’s busiest days, more than double the original predictions, with up to 12,000 police from forces across the country and the Ministry of Defence providing troops deployed (in uniform) to work during the Games.

More CCTV was installed in an area that already had the highest level of surveillance of its citizens “anywhere in the world”, while around £80 million was spent on the construction of an 11-mile long 5,000-volt electric fence surrounding the Olympic zone.

The justification given for this extraordinary level of security was primarily the threat of terrorism and secondarily public disorder, heightened by the perception of a weak police response to rioting the previous summer that ensued after the police killing of Mark Duggan in Tottenham in August 2011.

Concerned at the climate of fear generated by the security strategy, the Newham Monitoring Project put out a call for volunteers to monitor the Olympic policing operation as trained Community Legal Observers. More than 100 people volunteered for training to provide support and assistance on legal issues from a community perspective.

This report provides information on their experiences and the reactions of local community members (supportive), the police (hostile) and Newham council (“actively obstructive”). The report also assesses the lessons learnt from the exercise, particularly in relation to the stopping and searching of young black men, and the largely unreported use of illegal strip searches in the back of police vehicles.

See also: Statewattch Analysis: A “clean city”: the Olympic Games and civil liberties (pdf) by Chris Jones