Some of the undercover police officers who were sent to infiltrate political groups have become hostile towards Scotland Yard, according to police.
In an official document, police chiefs say there is a “strained” relationship between the former undercover officers and what they call “the wider Metropolitan Police Service”.
The former undercover officers had at one time worked in the Special Demonstration Squad, the Met’s controversial undercover unit that spied on at least 460 political groups between 1968 and 2008. (For background on the SDS, see this and this).
Police say that there are a number of reasons why the relationship has become strained, but do not spell them out.
However in another official document, the Met says that an unspecified number of the former SDS officers “assert that they have suffered psychiatric damage as a consequence of their deployments”.
These officers have launched legal action against the Met or have retired from the police due to ill-health, according to the document.
“The majority of these officers have expressed considerable hostility to the Metropolitan Police Service and by extension to any other public body that was involved with the Special Demonstration Squad.”
The documents (which can be read here and here) have been submitted by the Met to the public inquiry which is scrutinising the police’s use of undercover officers to monitor political groups since 1968.
The inquiry - led by Lord Justice Pitchford - was established by Theresa May when she was home secretary following a series of revelations about the conduct of the undercover spies, including forming long-term intimate relationships with women and gathering information about grieving parents of murdered teenager Stephen Lawrence.
The documents were submitted by the Met as part of an attempt to keep secret the identities of two of their employees.
The pair have been given the task of liaising with the large pool of former undercover officers who were employed to infiltrate political groups.
According to the documents, the duo are responsible for assessing the likelihood of the former undercover officers being unmasked, and helping to provide welfare support for the ex-spies. (See this and this for the official remit of their work which is codenamed Operation Motion).
Police say (here) there are more than 150 officers who - since 1968 - either worked undercover infiltrating political groups, or were employed supervising or managing these undercover officers. This includes those who worked in the National Public Order Intelligence Unit, the undercover squad set up in the late 1990s to spy on political activists.
For an analysis of the number of undercover officers who have been deployed in political groups, see this from the Campaign Opposing Police Surveillance.
Lord Justice Pitchford is expected to start the substantive hearings of the inquiry next year. At the moment, he is looking at a number of issues that will help determine how much of the inquiry will be held in public.
Police (see here) have argued that large parts of the inquiry should be held behind closed doors. Pitchford has yet to decide whether the two officers employed in Operation Motion should be granted anonymity.
