Inkerman Group
The Inkerman Group is an international private security company that reportedly monitors protestors. [1] Former Met commissioner Lord Peter Imbert acts as a strategic consultant for the group.[2]
It was set up in 1996 by Gerald Moor, its CEO, 'to meet the specific intelligence and security needs of businesses'. [3]
Contents
Monitoring protestors
According to the Guardian, a "restricted" report produced by the Inkerman Group in 2008 warned of a growing threat of "eco-terrorism". Under a section on "recent acts of eco-terrorism", the document listed various peaceful campaign groups, including the anti-aviation collective Plane Stupid.[1] Arguably it has been this elusive threat of "eco-terrorism", sometimes tainted with the conflation between "illegal" and "violent" protest, that serves to justify the need for both the domestic extremism units and the private security firms.[4]
The company's website states that:
- the group offers 'comprehensive surveillance and counter-surveillance service, and operates experienced in-house teams able to respond and be in place at a moment's notice. Services include specialist human surveillance as well as electronic measures.
- The Inkerman Group utilises legal, ethical and wholly necessary covert surveillance techniques to detect and identify a crime or establish innocence. Services we offer include: Covert surveillance, Installation of covert video / audio equipment, Technical Surveillance Counter Measures / electronic sweeps [5]
- Our highly qualified and experienced in-house teams have specialist knowledge across a wide range of issues including fraud, business traveller safety, event security, terrorism, pandemic, kidnap, extortion and all types of protest and extremism. [6]
Transferable skills and alliances: police and private security industry
Questions have been raised regarding the ethics of "former police officers cashing in on their surveillance skills for a host of companies that target protesters".[1] See the Powerbase overview of the revolving door between the private security industry and the police.
Affiliations
People
- Lord Peter Imbert, a former Met commissioner. He was Chairman of Capital Eye Ltd, a security consultancy now wholly owned by the Inkerman Group, for which he acts as a consultant.[7]
Clients
The client base includes multinational corporations, companies, governments and private individuals for which the company provides the full range of security and intelligence services.
Contact
- Address:
- Inkerman House
- 3-4 Elwick Road
- Ashford
- Kent TN23 1PF
- United Kingdom
- Website:http://www.inkerman.com/gb/home
- Twitter at @inkermangroup
- Blog http://blog.inkerman.com/
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Paul Lewis and Rob Evans, Green groups targeted polluters as corporate agents hid in their ranks, The Guardian 14 February 2011 Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; name "Evans2" defined multiple times with different content - ↑ Lord Imbert, www.parliament.co.uk, 5 January 2011
- ↑ Inkerman Group, The Company, company website, acc 5 January 2010
- ↑ Matilda Gifford Why spy on peaceful protesters? The Guardian, 26/04/09, accessed 17/01/11
- ↑ Inkerman Group, Surveillance, company website, acc 5 January 2010
- ↑ Inkerman Group, Risk Assessments, acc 5 January 2012
- ↑ Lord Imbert, www.parliament.co.uk, 5 January 2011
]
