Policing - in brief (18)
01 November 1999
Netherlands: Police create eco-activist database: Various police authorities have come together with the Binnenlands Veiligheidsdienst to create a national eco-activist database. Their aim is to collect information regarding activists centrally to prevent them disrupting major construction projects. The scheme involves all the areas in which major construction works are taking place, such as the controversial Betuwelijn high speed rail project or the expansion of Schiphol airport, which are likely to be targeted by eco-activists such as the Groen Front (Green Front). The activities of these organisations are normally peaceful yet tend to delay completion whilst costing the police a fortune in overtime. By having a central collection point of information concerning these activists the police hope to prevent such campaigns in the future. The police are particularly concerned that Dutch eco-activists are being inspired by campaigners in the UK who have managed to delay similar projects for years.
UK: Stevens appointed Met Commissioner: Deputy Commissioner John Stevens was named as the next head of London's Metropolitan police force in August, succeeding Sir Paul Condon. Stevens will take over the 44,000-strong force in January on a five-year contract on an annual salary of around £130,000. Earlier this year he was selected to reinvestigate the murder by a loyalist death squad, allegedly with security force collusion, of civil-rights lawyer Pat Finucane in Northern Ireland. Stevens previous experience, particularly his involvement in controversial Northern Ireland investigations, led government ministers and the Home Office to conclude that he would be "a safe pair of hands" for the post-Lawrence inquiry Metropolitan police force. At his first public engagement since the announcement, at the London School of Economics in September, Stevens spoke on the problems of corruption and racism due to bad individual police officers. However he was told by the Stephen Lawrence family solicitor Imran Khan that he "must accept with willingness, and not the difficulty shown by his predecessor, that institutional racism exists within the force."
UK: Police pay Silcott £50,000 compensation: The Free Winston Silcott campaign has welcomed the £50,000 compensation award paid to the prisoner for his wrongful conviction for the murder of PC Keith Blakelock during the Broadwater Farm riots in north London 14 years ago. Silcott, whose conviction for Blakelock's murder was overturned when it was revealed that statements attributed to him by the police had apparently been fabricated. Winston is still battling against a sentence for the murder of a man at a party after acting to defend himself from a knife attack. He has become a vocal campaigner for prisoners' rights and has campaigned against miscarriages of justice on behalf of other prisoners. Scotland Yard has said that it will challenge a £500,000 legal bill arising from the out of court settlement. The Free Winston Silcott Campaign has a
website and you can write to Winston at: Winston Silcott B74053, HMP Maidstone, County Road, Kent ME14 1UZ.