UK: Policing disorder
01 January 1991
UK: Policing disorder
actdoc December=2000
HM Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) has produced a report on
public order policing. "Keeping the Peace: Policing
Disorder" provides an interesting insight into the future
practices of the policing of demonstrations, activists and
protest groups. Intelligence led policing is seen as central part
in "winning back the streets". Public order intelligence is
currently gathered from a number of sources, including the
National Criminal Intelligence Service (NCIS), Special
Branches, the Northern and Southern Intelligence Units,
Metropolitan Police Service Public Order Intelligence System and
several data systems within police forces.
In November 1998 it was announced that a new National Public
Order Intelligence Unit based at Scotland Yard and headed by
commander Barry Moss, head of the Met's Special Branch, had been
set up. When it takes up its activities it will collate this
disparate intelligence, compile profiles of individuals and
organisations, and analyse and disseminate it through a national
system. The system will incorporate the Animal Rights National
Index (a database of animal rights protesters), but intelligence
relating to football supporters will remain the preserve of the
NCIS, leaving little doubt as to the intended targets of the new
unit. There is no discussion of how intelligence gathering is to
be implemented on the ground, however the experiences of protest
group Reclaim the Streets (RTS) may provide some indication:
"Vehicles carrying equipment have been broken into, followed and
impounded en route to street parties; RTS's offices have been
raided, telephones have been bugged and activists have been
followed, harassed and threatened with conspiracy
charges."
The HMIC report also calls for new legislation to criminalise the
"defensive building" of tunnels and bunkers, a tactic employed
at environmental protest sites prior to the commencement of
construction work. It also suggests that:
"An increasingly common practice used by certain activist
groups, in their overall approach to protest, is to
instigate civil actions against the police."
Keeping the Peace: Policing Disorder, HM Inspectorate of
Constabulary, March 1999, HMSO; Intelligence Newsletter,
26.11.98.