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Press release: no faith in new undercover policing guidelines 10.8.16

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01 August 2016

Press release from Police Spies Out Of Lives, 8.8.16

Eight women who were affected by relationships with undercover officers, and who started Police Spies Out of Lives, have issued the following statement in response to the new guidelines for undercover policing issued by the College of Policing. These guidelines are out for consultation until midnight Wednesday 10th August 2016.

“It is only through the actions of women such as ourselves, political activists, whistleblowers and journalists that abusive undercover relationships have been exposed, the police would have covered them up forever if they could get away with it – as witnessed by their continuing stance of ‘neither confirm nor deny‘ in the face of all the evidence and despite the serious abuses committed.

• We have no faith that the measures proposed by the College of Policing will stop further human rights abuses;
• There are no circumstances in which the use of undercover intimate sexual relationships are justified;
• The use of such relationship amounts to institutional sexism and serious sexual violation;
• There is no excuse for abuse and that those who commit or sanction such abuse should be subject to prosecution;
• The infiltration of political movements is an affront to any decent society and represents an interference with the right to freedom of expression and assembly; and that within this context undercover relationships have a particularly harmful affect on the ability of women to exercise these rights.

We will do our best to ensure that the Public Inquiry brings to light the true extent of the abuses committed by these political policing units and that action is taken to prevent the abuses from ever happening again.”

Background

• Undercover policing draft guidance: contradictions made clear (Statewatch News Online, 4 July 2016)

Official documentation

• Undercover policing guidance published (College of Policing, link)
• Draft guidance: Undercover policing: Authorised Professional Practice (80 pages, pdf)