Undercover Policing in the UK: Authorised Professional Practice

[davidbfpo]

A report by the (supposedly) independent inspectorate of policing and the fire service. I note it was published in November 2017, but has only today come to notice via Twitter. A mass of bureaucratic points, it should supplement the document in the first post.
Link:https://www.hmics.scot/sites/default...0180207PUB.pdf

A commentary:

The report focuses on the use of Scottish undercover policing in tackling serious crimes. A total of 423 undercover operations of this nature have been undertaken since 2000 in Scotland. As an examination of the policing of serious criminal behaviour, the report is certainly interesting, but it fails to deal with the central issue that it was set up to investigate: the widespread use of undercover policing in political campaigns. Although the report is adamant no Scottish police officers engaged in any kind of infiltration activity, it concedes that undercover English officers spent periods of time north of the border. Indeed, the SDS deployed 11 officers over a decade in Scotland – mainly around the G8 summit in 2005 when world leaders including George W Bush and Tony Blair gathered at Gleneagles.
The report claims that during that event they operated with “the full knowledge” of Tayside Police. But the lack of detail and openness in the report has not satisfied campaigners for a full Scottish public inquiry.

Link:https://theconversation.com/police-s...disarray-91500

[davidbfpo]

An almost entertaining and sad at the same time BBC commentary on the long running inquiry into undercover policing by two specialist teams based in London, who operated across the UK.
Link:https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-47625246

What is remarkable is that some many documents have been retained and identified. MY recollection is that most police records are retained for seven years, with exceptions for murder etc.