West Midlands Counter Terrorism Unit (WMCTU)

Although a part of West Midlands Police, West Midlands Counter Terrorism Unit (WMCTU) is one of five teams across the country that form the Counter Terrorism Policing Network.

Record and controversies

Providing 'intelligence support' for the policing of anti-fracking protests

This article is part of the Spinwatch Fracking Portal and project

In 2018 Spinwatch found evidence that two regional counter terrorism units covering the East and West Midlands were closely monitoring the anti-fracking movement and communities.

With its large swathes of land licensed for shale gas exploration, the Midlands has become a key fracking battleground. The region’s biggest operator is INEOS – the petrochemical giant owned by Sir Jim Ratcliffe, Britain’s richest man and a recently-anointed knight. His company is using sweeping court injunctions to stop communities protesting near its proposed exploration sites on the advice of police, according to an INEOS security consultant’s testimony at London’s High Court in November 2017.

Spinwatch has found evidence that two regional counter terrorism units covering the East and West Midlands continue to keep the anti-fracking movement under surveillance.

Public documents reveal that Special Branch officers in the East Midlands Special Operations Unit (EMSOU-SB), a division of the East Midlands Counter Terrorism Intelligence Unit (EMCTIU), ‘provided significant intelligence support’ for the policing of anti-fracking protests in 2017.

Derbyshire Police’s Chief Constable’s annual ‘Terrorism and domestic extremism report’ update for the Strategic Governance Board was published 27 November 2017, a year after the Home Office claimed fracking opponents were not targeted under Prevent. Although it states that Special Branch’s counter terrorism work is ‘sensitive on the grounds of National Security’ and unsuitable for public disclosure, the report offers some insight into EMSOU-SB’s efforts to ‘mitigate’ the risks posed by terrorism and domestic extremism in the region through its intelligence gathering:

‘EMSOU-SB Derbyshire has also provided significant intelligence support to the operational policing of the General Election, and for offences related to Animal Rights, anti-fracking demonstrations and Left Wing/Right Wing public order issues.’

The report gives no detail of how Special Branch gathers this ‘significant intelligence’ - or what the Derbyshire constabulary did as a result. Various East Midlands Police Collaboration briefing papers state that EMSOU-SB works with the ‘security services and other key strategic partners’ to ‘reduce risk from terrorism and extremism’, so it’s likely this intelligence is shared.

Another public document found by Spinwatch similarly shows how the West Midlands Counter Terrorism Unit (WMCTU) labels environmental groups taking part in ‘anti-fracking protest camps and coordinated direct action’ as potential domestic extremists alongside lone wolf and far-right actors. The ‘Counter Terrorism Local Profile’ summary for the West Midlands produced by this unit and published verbatim in the ‘Safer Solihul Strategic Assessment 2018’, states that:

‘There is a broad range of groups within the context of Domestic Extremism including; Extreme Right Wing (XRW), Extreme Left Wing (XLW), Far Right and Far Left, DE Lone Actors, Animal Rights and Environmental Activists.’

WCMTU adds:

‘Environmental groups are likely to focus their efforts on disrupting Onshore Oil and Gas Operations in the UK during 2017 through anti-fracking protest camps and coordinated direct action’.

People

• Chief Superintendent Matthew Ward, head of West Midlands Counter Terrorism Unit, 2017

Website and Social Media

• Website: https://www.west-midlands.police.uk/specialist-teams/counter-terrorism

Articles and resources

Articles

This article is part of the Counter-Terrorism Portal project of Spinwatch.

*Melissa Jones, Russell Scott, Why are counter terrorism police still spying on the anti-fracking movement?, Spinwatch, 9 September 2018.

Campaigns

• Netpol, Campaigners, not extremists, 2019