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UK: NCIS needs surveillance role

01 November 1994

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.s