Metropolitan Police Special Patrol Group
The Metropolitan Police Special Patrol Group was established in 1961 "to provide a centrally based mobile squad for combating particularly serious crime and other problems which could not be dealt with by local Divisions."[1]
According to the Metropolitan Police website:
- The convenient presence of a disciplined, well-organised team brought the group into increased use for the control of demonstrations, where their presence sometimes came to assume unwanted symbolic significance.[2]
In the 1970s, author Tony Bunyan argued that the group's creation had led to an increasing resort to force by the police:
- Attention turned to the SPG's after the killing of two Pakistanis at India House by two armed members of the group in February 1973. It was then learned that members of the SPG carry arms as a matter of course - two officers in each transit. Parliamentary indignation centred on the sale of toy pistols - which the two Pakistantis carried. The critical question however was never really asked - What would have happened if armed policemen had not been instantly available - as would have been the case a few years ago?[3]
Officers from the Special Patrol Group were suspected of involvement in the killing of schoolteacher Blair Peach at a counter-demonstration against the National Front on 23 April 1979.[4]
The Special Patrol Group was disbanded in 1986 and replaced by the Territorial Support Group.[5]
Notes
- ↑ Special Patrol Group, Metropolitan Police Service, 5 October 2009.
- ↑ Special Patrol Group, Metropolitan Police Service, 5 October 2009.
- ↑ Tony Bunyan, The History and Practice of the Political Police in Britain, Quarter Books, 1977, p.95.
- ↑ Paul Lewis, Secret Met police inquiry into death of Blair Peach revealed, guardian.co.uk, 2 October 2009.
- ↑ Territorial Support Group, Metropolitan Police, 5 October 2009.
