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Policing - in brief (8)

01 September 1995

Green light for racism: Commissioner Condon's remarks alleging that 80% of street crime was carried out by black men, announcing the launch of Operation Eagle Eye (see Statewatch vol 5 no 4), seem to have given the green light to racist officers on the ground to drive young blacks off the streets by aggressive stops and searches. Police monitoring groups throughout London reported a tripling of complaints of police aggression and harassment in August. Scotland Yard said that the operation was not based on stop and search but was aimed to "make the streets unsafe for muggers" and had the warm support of "the public" - presumably the white public. Observer 27.8.95. BT "Cover" For Police?: British Telecom are allowing police to pose as company employees, according to allegations made by a BT worker to "Socialist Worker". They are also making BT vans and equipment available to police in order to carry out surveillance work. The BT worker is quoted by Socialist Worker as saying: "they (BT) have been allowing police to use BT vans and tents in order to do surveillance work. That puts us at risk. We have already had a couple of engineers attacked. We wondered why at first, but then we found out that police had been in the area pretending to be BT workers a couple of weeks earlier." When contacted BT refused either to confirm or deny the allegation. A spokesman stated: "I couldn't comment on that.. it's not something we could comment on - what methods the police may or may not use." Socialist Worker 9.9.95.