e c i l o P e c n a l l i e v r u S photography, video & CCTV
ALAN LODGE
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One Eye on the Road Alan Lodge alan@alanlodge.co.uk http://alanlodge.co.uk
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Contents Intro ...
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Some of the story so far ...
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Security Services Act etc …
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Operation Solstice ...
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Operation Nomad ...
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Operation Snapshot ...
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Forward Intelligence Teams ‘FIT’ ...
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It continues …
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Intro ... “Just because you’re paranoid
doesn’t mean they aren’t after you”.1
In recent years, surveillance techniques have been developed, they say for the catching of criminals in criminal acts, further, to provide evidence for their prosecution. I think society at large would argue that that’s fair enough. Fingerprint detection after all, seems to be acceptable to most. In recent times however, these same surveillance techniques are being much used to inform those trying to control dissent. It should be pointed out that dissent and protest are not crimes in the UK …. yet! Since CCTV has mushroom across western civilisations’ public spaces, (and many of its private ones!), awkward questions are being raised about its purpose and to who’s advantage it all operates for. Is it ‘haves’, watching the ‘have-nots’, ‘goodies’ watching the ‘baddies’, Corporations spying on each other and their employees for commercial advantage. Or, perhaps, ‘Vested interest’ in powerful positions maintaining the status quo and public order? Most of this seems to imply that authority reckons itself to be the goodies. But, speaking as someone
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with concerns, it doesn’t look like that from here. Unrepresentative baddies hanging on to their power. Imagine (an extreme case): a ‘Nazi’ party in some shape or form gets elected!! (Well, it has happened before). It is obvious that these enhanced databases and surveillance techniques on the population would enable such a state, instant repression and targeting of the troublemakers. Not just notes on past criminal conviction, but also intelligence on associates, beliefs, political activity, spending habits, library records, what TV you watch, internet sites visited. These are obviously very powerful technologies, which like nuclear power, genetic engineering etc. I’m not sure we are grown up enough yet to operate. The prime motive appears to be in trying to keeping the population ‘in line’, rather than operating in their service and the maintenance of their security from crime.
Some of the story so far ... To be able to be of independent thought. To publish. To congregate with others to draw attention to an issue of concern were believed by most to be the obvious manifestation of a free society. Personally, it’s never seemed like this to me. Free? My life experience, (since I was first hit round the head by a police truncheon at the festival in Windsor Great Park in 1974) is that they are always there, on my case! Especially when I gather together with friends. Not for my criminal activities you understand! But because I am interested in getting together with others of a similar cast of mind. Then to run experiments in events, lifestyles alternatives and entertainment, that could well contribute to the saving of the planet. To try and make a difference! Naturally, the ‘vested interests’ both inside and outside of government are perpetually lobbying to move the law about to their best, frequently, commercial advantage. To squash deviance and dissent as it arises, by redefining what a crime is this week. The use of police in para-military fashion was first tested on a national scale during the miners’ strike (aside from the Second World War!). The police were somewhat overwhelmed by the unrest in the inner cities during the early 1980’s. However, within a couple of years, the sciences of ‘field manoeuvres’ and surveillance techniques were learned. These were then applied to a wide variety of groups with equal vigour. Tony Benn drew attention to the existence of the “Public Order Tactical Operations Manual”.
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Drawn up by Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO), and approved by the Home Office the contents of which had been kept secret.2 Benn said: “The manual provides for the training of the police in paramilitary operations, including instruction in methods of incapacitating demonstrators by the infliction of actual bodily harm or the use of police horses to canter into crowds and the tactical use of noise to instil fear, all of which are in clear breach of the law. “The document was apparently drawn up by the Association of Chief Police Officers ACPO [not an authorised or official body] after the disturbances that occurred in Brixton, Bristol and Toxteth in 1981 and the pages which were released during a recent trial made it clear that officers had been given instructions which laid them open to charges of assault. It is clear from the details that the manoeuvres, with short shields, long shields, horses and truncheons, that it recommends should be deployed are in clear contravention of the rules that have hitherto governed the actions of police forces”.3 ACPO had produced this paper during this period when British officers had been seconded to the Royal Hong Kong Police and the South Korean Police. To see how they dealt with disturbance in the street. This was a severe departure from the way Britain was policed up to then. With the experience of the miners’ strike and the attack on travellers on the way to Stonehenge for the annual festival, the 1986 Public Order Act was passed. It is from this time that the state sought to gather information on ever larger numbers of individuals and their activities, thus creating huge databases. The collation of information had been much improved. Taken with advances in
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communication technologies, the police were now able to operate as a national force under the direction of an un-elected body, ACPO, which pressured for each of these pieces of legislation to assist in tackling crime they said. However, all measures continue to be used to deal with dissent. The Battle of the Beanfield near Stonehenge was the watershed for my own community. The year after the miners’ strike finished in 1985. The news section of Police Review, published seven days after the Beanfield, stated: “The Police operation had been planned for several months and lessons in rapid deployment learned from the miners’ strike were implemented”.4 The violence deliberately orchestrated by the police to frighten the blue blazes out of us; and those that may have wished to have associated with us. This of course, resulted in the complete collapse of our economy. Surveillance of the ‘alternative’ increased.
Security Services Act etc … In the mid 1990’s Michael Howard Home Secretary in the Tory government brought the operation of the Security Services, normally tasked to look into terrorism, security of the state etc. into police operations, without however, equivalent accountability. Much to the annoyance of the police themselves, they felt that their ‘turf’, was being invaded! Oh! There is some accountability, a commission to oversee the investigation of complaints about surveillance by these services. Should a complaint to this tribunal be made, an individual would not be told whether or not they have actually been the target of MI5 surveillance. Under current procedure, they are only told if the tribunal considers MI5 to have acted wrongly. In effect, filling in one of these complaints forms available from most police stations simply alerts the security services to the fact that the individual suspects they are being watched (and perhaps, therefore, should be!!!). At that time John Wadham of Liberty pointed out that: “A little noticed clause in the Intelligence Services Act 1994, 5 allows information obtained from bugging and surveillance by MI5 and MI6 to be used in court. This very important amendment demonstrates a crucial change in direction for these services. In future we will see more and more agents giving evidence from behind screens in ordinary criminal trials”.
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“Most people, for obvious reasons, will never know whether or not they are under surveillance and thus will be in no position to complain. For the right to complain to be effective the individual must obviously be aware of the fact that his or her rights have been violated”.6 The Security Services Act 1996 had re-targeted the work of the security services, with their intelligence gathering capabilities, to peaceful protest. They are to investigate “Serious Crime”. Again, fair enough one might think. There are some pretty heavy people out there!, except that serious crime is now severely, ‘redefined’: Thus, it shall also be the function of the Service to act in support of the activities of police forces and other law enforcement agencies in the prevention and detection of serious crime. (3B) Conduct is within this subsection if it constitutes (or, if it took place in the United Kingdom, would constitute) one or more offences, and either— (a) it involves the use of violence, results in substantial financial gain or is conduct by a large number of persons in pursuit of a common purpose;7 or …. > How I find this quite scary. Do they mean a football crowd, civil insurrection, a high street full of shoppers, a trade dispute, protest or rave?? With such a definition, they can make it up as they go along! This definition is still used and it to be found more recently, as definition of serious crime under section 263 of the Investigatory Powers Act 2016,8 still dealing with powers for the Intelligence Services. Matters had then developed yet further. Under the provisions of the Police Act 1997, Security Services can now be involved in police operations in monitoring the activities of environmental protesters. The National Criminal intelligence Service (NCIS)9 had been formed to centralise much of their evidence gathering and `oversee’ this relationship. The functions of NCIS were to gather intelligence data and analysed this information to provide the necessary insight and intelligence to national police forces. The act also empowered the service with rights to perform surveillance operations.10
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Det Supt Bryan Drew, of the NCIS, stated: “These groups are diversifying. They are using the tools that the Internet provides. Interception of these communications is very difficult.” (NCIS - Annual Report 97) During the arguments, prior to passing of this act, John Alderson. [ex-Chief Constable, Devon and Cornwall Police] cautioned: “It is fatal to let the secret services into the area of ordinary crime. MI5 are not under the same restraints as the police. They infiltrate organisations, people’s job and lives….. It is there for future governments to build
on.. No government in my lifetime has ever given liberty back; it is not in the nature of governments to grant liberty”.11 For us to have arrived at such a state of affairs, I though it appropriate to review some of the stages leading here.
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Operation Solstice ... When ACPO had another meeting in early 1985, it was resolved to obtain a High Court Injunction preventing the annual gathering at Stonehenge. This was the legal ‘device’ to be used to justify the attack at the “Battle of the Beanfield” on the 1st June in Hampshire. Well it wasn’t a battle really.....It was an ambush!12 The scenes there were recorded by media, including myself, that had evaded the police blockade. The story was international news. `Dixon of Dock Green’ type policing was dead. That which Britain was noted for had now changed to para-military operations against minority groups. Kim Sabido, a reporter used to visiting the worlds `hot spots’, did an emotional pieceto-camera for ITN as he described the worst police violence that he had ever seen: “What we - the ITN camera crew and myself as a
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reporter - have seen in the last 30 minutes here in this field has been some of the most brutal police treatment of people that I’ve witnessed in my entire career as a journalist. The number of people who have been hit by policemen, who have been clubbed whilst holding babies in their arms in coaches around this field, is still to be counted...There must surely be an enquiry after what has happened today”.13 14 There wasn’t. The civil case we took later, to call the police to some kind of account, sections of the police radio log, given in evidence, were missing and the videotape from the helicopter had also been messed with. Sections were missing. No one had any idea how long. You see surveillance is not impartial. This material, had the batteries not failed, or a tape being changed! …. would have been very useful in proceeding with our action against the police on a number of points. By keeping the prying eyes of journalism out of the way, many aspects of the story remains told, only by their own, very partial, cameras. When the item was nationally broadcast on ITN news later that day, Sabido’s voice-over had been removed and replaced with a dispassionate narrator. The worst film footage was also edited out. When approached for the footage not shown on the news, ITN claimed it was missing. Sabido said: “When I got back to ITN during the following week and I went to the library to look at all the rushes, most of what I’d thought we’d shot was no longer there. From what I’ve seen of what ITN has provided since, it just disappeared, particularly some of the nastier shots”.15 We had felt watched for some time. For a period of many years living on site, every day to be watched through pairs of binoculars, patrol car at the end of the lane taking vehicle reg numbers, ‘routine’ checks on vehicles always providing the police with the opportunities of conversion to see what might ‘bubble up’! The racket from a helicopter, frequently deployed to watch over people with as few as a couple of vehicles, two goats and a dog! In the early 1990’s a National Task Force had been set up to monitor the movements of such groups of Travellers. Northern New Age Traveller Co-ordination Unit and the Southern Central Intelligence Units were formed. Police operations were dedicated and focused on us for our lifestyles, not our terrorist inclinations!
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Operation Nomad ... I addition to action of the Stonehenge Festival, gathering were now being prevented by the Public Order Act 1986 [sect 39, the anti-traveller bit].16 The police had been mounting huge operations on the ground to deal with people approaching events. Starting with the database developed from their experience of Stonehenge matters, Operation Nomad was initiated. The police provided for the intensive monitoring of individuals and traveller encampments across all of the South West of England. I and many hundreds of other were searched, photographed and generally hassled. Latter in 1992, I was anonymously sent a copy of a document, marked ‘restricted’ and titled: `Operation Nomad Bulletin’. Operation Nomad was a surveillance and information gathering exercise looking into the activities of New Age Travellers and now `raves’ such as Castlemorton. In this document, officers are instructed to beware of my activities and that I photograph and tape record police operations.
At this time, I represented the welfare teams - Festival Welfare Services and the Travellers Aid Trust. We set these outfits up to provide health and welfare provision to help support those the state did nothing for. This support, together with my interest in
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photography to document people’s lifestyle and the opposition to it, resulted in me being mentioned in this police document as “someone to be watched, and handled with care”. Mention is made of my involvement in photographing and the bringing of civil actions after the `Battle of the Beanfield’ incident near Stonehenge in 1985. Further, `Her Majesty’s Dirty Tricks Department’ added that they suspected that I was a drug dealer, a device calculated to inconvenience my work.17 18 I believe that this information was inserted so as to make my work as jobbing photo journalist, more difficult, since I was bound to be treated with greater suspicion. It was also calculated to undermine my position with Festival Welfare Services and the Travellers Aid Trust in their liaison with various authorities. So there you have it, police methods of information gathering and surveillance are not infallible in their accuracy! Because of my treatment within the Nomad Documents, I brought an action against the Chief Constable of Avon and Somerset Police in the High Court in Bristol for ‘Malicious Falsehood’. I had also registered a formal complaint to police and that had been upheld, eventually receiving damages and an apology. It did however take six years!19 So much for my complaint, an apology and being told that the police acted unlawfully. This all seemed a little hollow when discovering this document. All this showed was that they had not considered the original complaint at all seriously and that I was now viewed as a troublemaker. I imagine I still am so listed. I expect that they have opened yet another file :)
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Operation Snapshot ... Operation Snapshot was a further intelligence gathering exercise on Environmental Protesters and Travellers but now organised on a national basis. Also, the ‘Rave Scene’ was now included. All designed to establish a database of personal details, names, nicknames and vehicle registration numbers. “Now every traveller’s vehicle is logged on computer, along with its whereabouts. An estimate of the number of persons in a convoy is included, together with details of any targeted individuals. Many of the vehicles and their occupants have been photographed”.20 Undercover operations were carried out and yet more photographs taken. This information was used as a backbone for an on-going intelligence operation begun by the Southern Intelligence Unit (SIU), operated from Devizes in Wiltshire (fancy that! coincidentally, the same base as ‘Operation Solstice’). In the minutes of a meeting held at Devizes on March 30th 1993, the objectives of the operation included: • Looking for a system to prevent Forces such as West Mercia (Castlemorton), being initially left bereft of intelligence. • Needed to develop a system whereby intelligence could be taken into the control room, and the most up-to-date intelligence was to hand. • To give Commanders immediate access to the most up-to-date intelligence, enabling them to develop the best strategy to combat the illegal activity which accompanied such events. After a short period the Northern New Age Traveller Co-ordination Unit, designed to cover the north of Britain, was established and operated from Penrith in Cumbria. The meeting was attended by constabulary representatives from Bedfordshire, Avon and Somerset, Devon and Cornwall, Dorset, Gloucestershire, Dyfed-Powys, Cambridgeshire, Hertfordshire, Kent,
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Norfolk, Northamptonshire, South Wales, Gwent, Staffordshire, Thames Valley, Warwickshire, Surrey, Suffolk, West Mercia, West Midlands, Ministry of Defence and the National Criminal Intelligence Service (Hampshire and Essex sent apologies). Papers that told of this operation included this paragraph: “Detective Superintendent Fraser described how, if the need arose, an operator would be sent the scene with two lap-top computers. One for input and the other for information contained in the main database. Supt Fraser affirmed that the system could contain over ONE MILLION RECORDS”.21 One million of course, far exceeds the numbers of people that have acquired criminal records from the groups in question. The rest of the capacity it clearly for chit-chat and intelligence, rather than evidence, hence my concern. Among information about New Age travellers and ravers are some of the following examples: • Spiral Tribe, one of the best known rave organisations, are targeted for special attention. The bulletin notes their plans and asks: “Does this mean they are going to be more organised this year? If so,
we will have to be alert!!!” • “Suffolk Police object to all applications for rave parties”, one bulletin says. Their officer suggested that: “fire services were useful in producing prohibition notices”. • Surrey constabulary’s policy is that: “raves will not happen, illegal or otherwise”. • Gloucestershire Police reported that an organisation called Fayre Events Limited has applied to Forest of Dean council for a nine-month site for travellers at a farm. “Believe it or not, this may well be granted” the bulletin says!22
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So this is not just about surveillance then, but serious attempts at manipulating the situation. The document adds: “The intelligence unit has been seeking a method whereby ‘weekenders’ could be ‘weeded out’ from other computer records”. I was amused to read PC Keene delivering a final exhortation at the end of the meeting: “It’s yours, it’s new, let’s give it a go!”. I wonder how they’re getting on? The paper requests: “Any information, no matter how small, on new age travellers or the Rave scene should be forwarded to the unit immediately …. Does this mean they are going to be more organised this year? If so, we will have to be alert!!!”23 Liberty has challenged this police monitoring at the European Court of Human Rights. Andrew Puddephatt said: “To collate information on computers about individuals who have not committed offences and on the mere basis of their choice of lifestyle infringes on their right to privacy and freedom of expression. Targeting the whole of the travelling community is beyond the European Conventions’ limitations. Just because someone is a `new age traveller’ doesn’t mean that they are involved in crime”.24 “The figures produced by the police under Snapshot and Nomad assert that, at most, there are only 2000 vehicles housing 8000 people on the New Traveller scene. Now that the principal and the practice of
domestic surveillance of British citizens (who have not been found guilty of any offence) has been established, it seems likely that other demonised groups will come to join Travellers and ravers under the watchful eye of ‘Big Brother’”.25
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Forward Intelligence Teams ‘FIT’ ... Set up by the Metropolitan Police to monitor growing violence by gangs at football matches, throughout the 1990’s. They say numbers of ‘organised gangs’ are travelling across international frontiers. With the previous inadequate sharing of information that resulting in local
commanders bemoaning the fact that they were bereft of intelligence to head off or prepare for trouble. The football season is played out through the wintertime. However, the establishment of this specialist squad, with acquired skills in the surveillance of crowds, maintenance of a database, infiltration and befriending, resulted in a surplus capacity in the summer! Thus, the same squads use same techniques on matters of dissent in the summertime: protest, festivals, raves and direct action at large. “The liaison team and the protestors create the first part of the affective feedback loop. The trusting atmosphere between them allows the circulation of information which can encourage the protestors to self-police in advance, or de-escalate tense situations on the day. The loop then continues through the police command-centre, with the liaison team’s fast-time updates allowing them to develop a complex picture about the affective and atmospheric effects of particular interventions. While the quality of these updates is always going to depend on the ability of the protest liaison officer to ‘sense’ the mood, it remains a significant advance on the surveillance footage upon which the control room would otherwise rely upon for gauging the effects of their actions”.26 ‘Reclaim the Streets’, held street parties as an idea of taking back public space for the public to enjoy. They sprouted up in a number of cities. The issue is of course far beyond road traffic pollution, but the inhumanity of ‘globalisation’ at large. RTS events had been occurring in London, Birmingham, Liverpool, Nottingham and many other
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provincial cities in the UK at an accelerating pace. Parties sprang up and perplexed the authorities in many cities: Berlin, Brisbane, Dublin, Geneva, Lyon, New York (wow!), Paris, Prague, San Francisco, Seattle, Stockholm, Sydney, Toronto, Vancouver. All over the place in fact. The obvious public support that these events had been attracting, taken together with the influence that they have undoubtedly had on government policies on road building etc, means they they’re taken very seriously. Governments, road haulage and building lobbies, security and the vested interests, all felt their authority challenged. Officers from the FIT raided the RTS offices. The raid followed months of photographic surveillance and the monitoring of their mail and telephones. Their computers and discs were also seized. Not only of course to try and get evidence, but also in serious attempts to disrupt the organisation. To demonstrate the concern the authorities had for the use of electronic communications. When addressing a seminar on the subject at the Police Staff College at Bramshill, Chief Superintendent Davies, head of the Met Public Order Branch says: “They (the protesters) are well educated, ingenious, organised, articulate and well informed on environmental matters. They use inventive tactics to achieve their aims. Forces have to deploy increasingly sophisticated techniques in the policing of environmental protests”.27
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This had then been advanced to the forming a combined organisation; The National Public Order Intelligence Unit NPOIU had then been established. Based in Scotland Yard and combining operations of the police and the Security Service MI5. It had been tasked with tracking of ‘green’ activists and those going to public demonstrations: “These ‘eco-warriors’ are becoming increasingly disruptive, he said. The intelligence squad, now built on the foundations of the Forward Intelligence
Teams, will use information from Police Special Branch officers, and MI5, it will compile profiles of protesters and organisations considered to be potentially troublesome”.28 Under the same ‘umbrella’, it will also include a further three existing police teams. As I have already mentioned, the Southern Intelligence Unit has been monitoring New Age Travellers, festival-goes and people who occupy land illegally. In the north, a team has been logging details of hunt saboteurs and of course, the Animal Right National Index. Targeted individuals and groups will be listed on the Schengen Information System, the Europewide computerised database available to all police, immigration and border officials. [well, up to Brexit anyway!]
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Assistant Commissioner Anthony Speed of the Metropolitan Police, who chairs the Association of Chief Police Officers’ Public Order sub-committee said: “Experience shows that the same people are involved in demonstrations - whether it’s disruption of building works and motorways, runways, live animals for export, or people ‘reclaiming’ the streets. It tends to be the same people who support them and travel around the country. It’s about keeping a database on them - identifying the main individuals”.29 “We have good reason to be very critical of the authoritarian direction the government has taken at home, but we should be equally vigilant of what the UK government gets up to in the EU – and at the same time wake up to the fact that many of the threats to our freedoms and liberties now originate from the EU. Indeed, the surveillance society, which makes suspects of us all”. The right to demonstrate and travel freely is being undermined.30 Since the application of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 in the UK, made life bloody awkward for Travellers to follow their chosen lifestyles and just live. Additionally, of course, there are people wanting a festival, the free party folks, etc have been travelling to mainland Europe and beyond in search of a party! Or simply to be left alone. The culture thrives, my son tells me, in the south of Spain and the Technival events. Well, they’ve been onto this! Ch Supt Davies Said “The aim is to target known activists in the same way as convicted football hooligans - and use the most modern technology available. Experience shows that people with an interest in one activity, frequently are to be found active in another. It is clear to officers policing these events that a number of environmental activists are professional protesters. Some subjects have been seen at protests all over the country and abroad. One protester was spotted at 18 separate protests last year”.31 Was that you? Personally, I lack trust in their motives. Always have done. I’m just trying to help save a planet. I’m with Judge Hoffman here: “Civil disobedience on grounds of conscience is an honourable tradition in this country and those who take part in it may in the end be vindicated by history”.32
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After such a weighty opinion; A quote from a man that has long involved himself in environment action. I was stood next to him while he was being interviewed by a journalist. “There’s no need for the police and MI5 to break in - I’m not ashamed of anything I do. Tell ‘em to knock on the door ….. I’ll get the kettle on”.33
It continues … Police surveillance really went up a gear to enable officers to deal with the subjects targeted under the Public Order Act 1986 and the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994. This was just at the point of developments in modern computing, databases, the internet and improvements in video / digital camera technologies. Of course, they haven’t finished yet! Now, under the Conservative government, chapter 3 of these developments are coming down the pipe. Priti Patel, the Home Secretary has yet further ambitions with the law dealing with the more recent concept of ‘aggravated trespass’. This of course, is dealing with access to land. It is a common denominator that would affect festivals, travellers, environmental protest, trade dispute and even a rambler having a walk in the countryside. Surveillance in the operational policing of these matters will be greatly enhanced. “I would like to test the appetite to go further than the original proposals. I would like to broaden the existing categories of criminal trespass to cover trespassers on land who are there with the purpose of residing in their vehicle for any period and to give the police the relevant powers to arrest offenders in situ and to seize any vehicles or other property on unauthorised encampments promptly”.34 We are just at the cusp of a more widespread introduction of facial recognition systems. “Cameras are focused on an area; when people pass through the area their images are streamed directly to the live facial recognition system. This system contains a ‘watch-list’: a list of offenders wanted by the police or the courts”.35 Derived from all the methods and operations previously described. These techniques are currently the subject of much controversy and legal argument in the courts.
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Derbyshire Constabulary and National Police Air Service officers testing drone use ...
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“Call to Action .... In every sphere of policing a balance must be struck which respects local control whilst realising efficiency and effectiveness through appropriate national intervention. While the balance varies between policing functions, the need for smart investment in digital, data technology is strong and growing. If we believe in a National Digital Strategy and recognise it as something that will continue to evolve, we must create the capability that will allow it to happen”.36 Not all surveillance uses cameras of course. Undercover operations by police have legitimately targeted terrorist and very heavy organised criminals. Frequently the only way of bringing sufficient evidence to court. However, since the 1970’s policing units like the Special Demonstration Squad DSD and National Public Order Intelligence Unit NPOIU have operated undercover in a wide variety [more than 1000] of left wing, anarchist, trade union and social justice groups and campaigns.37
Since the exposure in 2010 of Mark Kennedy 38 as a long-term police infiltrator in activist groups in the UK and abroad, more than a dozen similar cases have been uncovered, with still others to come. For over forty years, the police secretly placed more than one hundred long-term undercover officers into scores of political groups in order to spy on them and subvert their work. In addition, a number of distasteful hidden police practices have been revealed, including stealing the identities of dead children, and tricking targets into intimate or even sexual relationships with agents – in some cases leading to the birth of children who were subsequently abandoned. Officers also testified in court under their false names; withheld evidence and actively planned and participated in serious crimes. The police ask is the Public Order Act 1986 out-dated? it has been amended several times (mainly with the effect of strengthening police powers), but the fundamental framework it provides for the
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policing of protests has essentially stayed the same since the mid-1980s. Recently, senior police officers have questioned whether the Act is still providing them with strong enough powers. Following the Extinction Rebellion (XR) protests in April 2019 senior officers from the Metropolitan Police questioned whether the Act should be reviewed.39 Metropolitan Police Commander Adrian Usher: “We will conduct a sober review of our tactics against recent protests, which is likely to say that the legislation associated with policing protest is quite dated, that policing and protest has moved on and that legislation should follow suit”.40 A police statement issued during the protests explained why they were unable to use some tactics involving force: “We have been asked why we are not using tactics such as containment - physically and forcibly stopping the protesters from moving around. The simple answer is we have no legal basis to do so. These are peaceful protesters; while disruptive their actions are not violent towards police, themselves or other members of the public. We are looking at other tactics such as tighter police cordons, but again that is resource intensive in terms of officer numbers and more often than not it just shifts the protesters to another location nearby, and does not assist in reopening roads”.41 “Home secretary Priti Patel is understood to want to take a fresh look at how the group is classified under the law after activists targeted print works and prevented several leading UK newspapers reaching the stands on Saturday. One option under consideration could see Extinction Rebellion classified as an organised crime group, according to reports – leaving organisers at risk of jail sentences of up to five years”.42 “The suggestion Extinction Rebellion should be reclassified as an ‘organised crime group’ is ridiculous,” the group responded. Thus unleashing resource that might more accurately be targeted on folks more akin to modern-day versions of Al Capone! In conclusion, I offer a little background on why we have been under surveillance as much as we have been. It is perhaps beyond the scope of this publication ……. So, please visit these links for further information.43 44 Please: don’t let the bastards grind you down. Alan Lodge (Tash) - Photographer (October 2020)
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References + Notes 1 2
Joseph Heller, Catch-22 ACPO (1983) Public Order Tactical Operations Manual. partially reproduced in Northam, Gerry (1988) Shooting in the Dark. London: Faber and Faber 3 Benn, Tony (Chesterfield) Hansard. 22 July 1985 https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/1985-07-22/debates/e46c5d7c-0df2-49f7-a3d3-3c9fe7cfcb38/PoliceTrainingManual 4 News: Wiltshire Operation Solstice, Police Review. 8 June 1985 5 Intelligence Services Act 1994 https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1994/13/section/1/enacted 6 Wadham, John. Legislation. Notes on The Intelligence Services Act 1994 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1468-2230.1994.tb01983.x 7 Security Service Act 1996 https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1996/35/enacted 8 Section 263, Investigatory Powers Act 2016 https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2016/25/section/263/enacted 9 National Criminal intelligence Service https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Criminal_Intelligence_Service 10 Barnett, H. Jago, R. - Constitutional & Administrative Law Taylor & Francis, Jul 2011 11 Red Pepper. Issue 24. May 1996 12 Lodge, A. Stonehenge: ‘Battle of the Beanfield’ June 1985 http://alanlodge.uk/OnTheRoad/battle-of-the-beanfield 13 ITN News 1st June 85 14 Operation Solstice - The Battle of the Beanfield [at 29.45mins] https://youtu.be/V1doyDQDZtc 15 Operation Solstice - The Battle of the Beanfield [at 46.20mins] https://youtu.be/V1doyDQDZtc 16 Section 39. Public Order Act 1986. http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1986/64/section/39/enacted 17 Campbell, Duncan “Photographer sues over police lies”. Guardian. 30 December 1993 18 British Journal of Photography “Festival photographer sues county police”. 6 January 1994 19 Campbell, Duncan “Police settle photographer’s claim over drug falsehood”. Guardian. 2 September 1998 20 Prestage, Michael. Police keep tabs on the travellers. Independent. 16 May 1993 https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/police-keep-tabs-on-the-travellers-2323342.html 21 Southern Central Intelligence Unit: Minutes of meeting held on Tuesday 30th March 1993 at Police Headquarters, Devizes 22 Campbell, Duncan. “Police track travellers by computer”. Guardian. 25 Feb 1994 23 Campbell, Duncan. “Police log travellers for crackdown”. Guardian. 25 Feb 1994 24 O’Conner, S & Lodge, A. “Watch with big brother”, Squall No 15. Summer 1997 https://squallmagazine.com/f/f15-28-watch-with-big-brother.html 25 Murdoch, Angus. “The Impact of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 on Britain’s Travellers”. PhD Thesis. Dept of Social Science 1998. University of Bristol https://research-information.bristol.ac.uk/files/34490939/300705.pdf 26 Policing Atmospheres: Crowds, Protest and ‘Atmotechnics’ Dr Illan rua Wall, Associate Professor, School of Law, University of Warwick http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/110495/7/WRAP-Policing-Atmospheres-Crowd-Protest-Atmotechnics-Wall-2018.pdf 27 Police Review 21 March 1997 28 National Public Order Intelligence Unit NPOIU Formation – Files Overview http://specialbranchfiles.uk/npoiu-formation 29 Bennetto, Jason. ‘Police unit to target green protesters’. Independent. 7 November 1998 https://www.independent.co.uk/news/police-unit-to-target-green-protesters-1183182.html 30 Bunyan, Tony. ‘Watching us, via Europe’s back door’. Guardian 11 February 2009 31 Police Review 21 March 1997 32 Lord Justice Hoffman. (commented during the Twyford Down hearing. Court of Appeal) 33 An anonymous and weathered road protester 34 Statement by the Home Secretary Priti Patel: Strengthening Police Powers to Tackle Unauthorised Encampments: House of Commons. 4 November 2019 https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-statements/detail/2019-11-04/HCWS80 35 Metropolitan Police Facial Recognition project https://www.met.police.uk/advice/advice-and-information/facial-recognition/live-facial-recognition 36 National Policing Digital Strategy: Digital, Data and Technology Strategy 2020- 2030 https://ict.police.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/National-Policing-Digital-Strategy-2020-2030.pdf 37 Spycops Targets: a Who’s Who : Undercover Research Group [249 groups, known about] https://undercoverresearch.net 38 Hattenstone, Simon. “Mark Kennedy: Confessions of an undercover cop”. 26 March 2011 https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2011/mar/26/mark-kennedy-undercover-cop-environmental-activist 39 Brown, Jennifer. Police powers: policing protests. House of Commons Library, Briefing Paper CBP5013. 17 June 2020 http://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/SN05013/SN05013.pdf 40 Joint Committee on Human Rights Uncorrected oral evidence: Democracy, privacy, free speech and freedom of association, HC 1890, Wednesday 24 April 2019, Q12 41 Metropolitan Police Report: Extinction Rebellion demonstrations, 18 April 2019 42 Forrest, Adam. “Extinction Rebellion condemns Priti Patel plan ‘to treat movement as organised crime group”. Independent. 7 September 2020 https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/extinction-rebellion-priti-patel-crime-newspaper-printer-protest-murdoch-xr-b404879.html 43 Lodge, A. Gatherings and laws progress trying to prevent them https://issuu.com/alanlodge/docs/zine_31_gatherings_and_laws_progress_trying_to_pre 44 Lodge, A. A Journey from Early Festivals to now https://issuu.com/alanlodge/docs/a_journey_from_early_festivals_to_now
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For this work I received a 1998 a ‘Winston’ a Big Brother Award from Privacy International. Presented by Channel 4’s Mark Thomas at the London School of Economics in October. Received an award for ‘outstanding achievement’ in contributions to the protection of privacy, for my photography of police surveillance techniques. The presentation was made on the 50th anniversary of the writing introducing Winston Smith in George Orwell’s 1984. Privacy International exists in response to a growing number of privacy threats, more than a hundred leading privacy experts and Human Rights organizations from forty countries linked to form an International organization for the protection of privacy. Members of the new body, including computer professionals, academics, lawyers, journalists, jurists and human rights activists, with a common interest in promoting an international understanding of the importance of privacy and data protection. Privacy International https://privacyinternational.org
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hotographer covering social, political and environmental issues and actions. Work has been produced for publication, galleries, digital and slide projections at events and presented at large scale in public space. Moving beyond photography, he has experimented with mixed media involving printed text and projected imagery. A post-graduate of Nottingham Trent University with an MA degree in Photography, Lodge specialised in issues surrounding representation, presenting himself in print and audio-visual format. A member of the National Union of Journalists, he is a documentary photographer, a photo-journalist and ‘storyteller’ always on the lookout to cover the different strands of related issues.
E: alan@alanlodge.co.uk W: http://alanlodge.uk Copyright © Alan Lodge 2019 Nottingham. UK
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