Police cover ups are ‘no surprise’

It’s now one month since Harvey Evans (15) and Kyrees Sullivan (16) were chased to their deaths by South Wales Police. At the time, Alun Michael, the elected Police and Crime Commissioner for South Wales, falsely claimed police had not been involved in the fatal crash. So why is he still in office?

The day after the news broke, Alun Michael publicly defended police actions and denied a police chase had taken place. However, CCTV footage showing a police car pursuing the two boys has come to light. It is now clear that Alun Michael lied, and South Wales Police have not given factual or accurate information. 

This is the latest in a string of deaths after police contact in Wales – and for local residents, police actions and the resulting cover up have come as no surprise. Local organisers in Ely, Cardiff, have started a petition calling for Alun Michael to step down. 

Sign the petition here, and support their call for justice. 

The rest of the UK

The findings of an investigation into undercover police operations targeting activist groups have determined that these deployments were unjustified and would have been halted quickly if the public had been aware of their activities.

Led by retired judge Sir John Mitting, the inquiry has been examining the actions of 139 undercover officers who infiltrated over 1,000 predominantly left-wing organisations. It was later discovered that male police spies had entered into sexual relationships with female activists, and in some cases even fathered children, without the activists’ knowledge of their true identities.

The recently published interim report focuses on the period from 1968, when the Special Operations Squad was established, up until 1982. It highlights that certain tactics employed during this time, such as the use of deceased children’s identities, would undoubtedly have raised legitimate public concerns and caused embarrassment for both the commissioner and the police authority, including the home secretary.

The report emphasizes that long-term undercover deployments within political groups necessitated the undercover officers, regardless of gender, to befriend members of the targeted organisations and immerse themselves in their personal and political lives. Setting aside the potential development of sexual relationships, this intrusion into the lives of hundreds of individuals during that era required a strong justification before it could be considered a viable police tactic.

Sir John Mitting notes that none of these issues were apparently addressed by senior officers within the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) or by Home Office officials during the relevant period. He highlights a 1976 report by senior MPS officers that described the work of undercover officers as “extremely important” for maintaining public order. However, he observes that the report did not examine the problematic methods employed.

The report does not reveal who, at the highest levels of authority, was aware of and approved the tactics that Sir John asserts would have led to the termination of the Special Demonstration Squad (SDS). Although it is evident that the government had knowledge of these operations, the report does not provide specific details about the individuals involved in authorising the activities.

Sir John states that if these issues had been addressed, it would have been difficult to reach any conclusion other than the closure of the SDS. The report does acknowledge that long-term infiltration of political single-issue groups could be justified if the purpose was to prevent or investigate serious crimes, including acts of terrorism. It cites three such groups during that period, including “(Provisional) Sinn Fein,” without disclosing the other two groups mentioned in closed evidence. However, it concludes that the majority of the SDS deployments during that time failed to satisfy either criterion.

The primary objective of infiltrating left-wing and anarchist groups was to maintain right wing hegemony. Under the Heath government (1970-1974), the main concern was industrial unrest, while during the Callaghan administration (1976-1979), the focus shifted to the infiltration of trade unions by the Communist Party of Great Britain and of the Labour Party by Militant Tendency. The report acknowledges that undercover policing did make a genuine contribution but asserts that the same results could have been achieved through less intrusive means.

Unfortunately, campaigners will have to wait three more years before the full findings are published, which will cover a much longer period until at least 2010.

In his “work in progress,” Sir John explains that certain issues are better addressed once all the evidence is available, including the impact of male officers engaging in deceitful sexual relationships on the affected women and their families. He also mentions the impact on the families of deceased children whose identities were adopted, as well as the purpose behind gathering intelligence on “justice” campaigns. As a result, he refrains from drawing general conclusions about the attitude of police officers and managers within the unit towards such deceptive sexual relationships during deployments.

This delay in the inquiry’s completion, originally expected to conclude in 2018, is a source of frustration for campaigners. During the launch of this interim report, journalists were informed that many of the concerns being examined, such as the effects of male officers’ conduct on women and the use of deceased children’s names as a tactic, would become more prominent in the later stages of the investigation.

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