NCIS needs surveillance role
01 January 1991
NCIS needs surveillance role
artdoc March=1995
A secret report by Mr Geoffrey Dear, HM Inspector of
Constabulary, for the Home Office argues that the National
Criminal Intelligence Service (NCIS) needs to have its powers
increased to allow it to carry out the surveillance of targeted
suspects.
When it was set up in 1992 the NCIS's role was limited to
gathering and assessing information (`hard' facts) and
intelligence (supposition or suspicion) and passing this on for
action to the reorganised Regional Crime Squads (RCSs, in effect
the regional branches of the NCIS) or to local police forces. The
arguments against giving the NCIS any more than an
intelligence-gathering role were strong ones. First, there was
the traditional opposition to the creation of a `national' police
force, and secondly, the question of accountability - with
officers drawn from a number of different police forces around
the country. It was considered that any role which moved beyond
gathering intelligence would require new legislation.
The Dear report says the restrictions on the NCIS which do not
allow for `mobile surveillance, use of technical equipment or
intercept communications [telephone tapping and `bugging']' mean
they have to rely on the RCSs or local police. He argues the NCIS
should be allowed to `develop' intelligence by following suspects
and using mobile surveillance: `There is no demand for the NCIS
to be in control of operations, but simply to be able to develop
operations intelligence packages to the stage where they can be
successfully taken over by the customer'. This distinction
between intelligence-gathering and `operations' (from which the
NCIS is excluded at present) seems to beg questions. Where does
one start and another finish, actively gathering evidence on the
suspected criminals in the community would be viewed by many as
`operational' steps prior to arrest.
Police Review, 18.11.94; see feature on MI5 in this issue.
Statewatch, Vol 4 no 6, November-December 1994