Covert Policing Ethics Committee
This article is part of the Undercover Research Portal at PowerBase - investigating corporate and police spying on activists.
The Covert Policing Ethics Committee is a little known, short-lived police organisation that played a role in undercover policing. It appears to have been established in 2008 by Metropolitan Police officer Kevin O'Leary, then Head of Operations for it's Specialist Crime Division and a member of the National Undercover Working Group. In a personal profile he states as follows:[1]
- I created a strategic ethics committee in 2008 to provide an additional layer of governance in the use of intrusive methods of investigation. I recruited academics, lawyers and senior people from NGOs to provide a sounding board for proposed operations, taking external views and feedback on the proportionality of covert policing methods.
According to a freedom of information request, there was only one meeting, which took place on 15 July 2009, and was chaired by Detective Chief Superintendent Alastair Jeffrey, OCU commander for covert policing in the Metropolitan Police.
The Committee's draft terms of reference was:[2]
- The committee will serve as an advisory body on the formulation of policies and/or guidelines concerned with ethical issues in covert policing, and:
- provide a forum for external discussion and sharing of perspectives concerning the use of covert law enforcement tactics.
- enable external consideration of policies and procedures to facilitate equalities impact assessments.
It is of note that the Committee was set up in the wake of the closing of Special Branch's undercover unit, the Special Demonstration Squad (SDS) following an internal reorganisation in 2008, apparently for breaking rules. According to an article in The Guardian, a 2009 report into the SDS indicated that there were concerns with the way the unit had operated, including that it 'operated without tight controls, ignored ethical issues and gathered information that had no use in fighting crime.'[3] Though there is as yet no link between the report and the setting up of the Covert Policing Ethics Committee that has been publicly established, the dates would indicate that this is a strong likelihood, given that the Mark Kennedy scandal did not start to break until the end of 2010.
As a concept, the Covert Policing Ethics Committee seems to have been the predecessor of the National Undercover Scrutiny Panel, founded in 2014.
Associated people
- Alastair Jeffrey: Head of Surveillance and Covert Policing (June 2008 - June 2010) and then Head of Covert Policing Command (June 2010 - February 2012) for the Metropolitan Police. He has since become Head of Enforcement for Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency.[4] Little is otherwise known of his links to covert and undercover policing.
- Kevin O'Leary: a Metropolitan Police detective who was Head of Operations for the Specialist Crime Directorate in 2009. He also headed the Training & Development sub-group of the National Undercover Working Group (2010) and Chaired the International Working Group on Undercover Policing for two years (2009-2011). He went on to hold a leading policing role around serious crime in relation to the 2012 Olympics. Following retirement he was involved in a number of risk management consultancies.[1]
- Adam Pacifico: member of the Committee in 2009. A barrister since 1991, he 'took a career break and became a serving police officer with the Metropolitan Police' between 1994-1999 'with three years spent on the pro-active covert drugs team'. He would return to being a barrister, with Red Lion Court Chambers, and go on to found a number of businesses related to risk consultancy and training (for details see under Kevin O'Leary) [5]
- Prof. John Adams, a risk management specialist and an original board member of Friends of the Earth. He noted on his website that he was a member of the Committee and that it 'quietly disappeared'[6] (He lists himself as a member in a speaker's biography in late 2010.[7]).
It is of note that O'Leary and Pacifico were also partners in a number of risk management consultancies - see under Kevin O'Leary for more details.
See also
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Kevin O'Leary, Profile, LinkedIn.com, undated (accessed 27 March 2015). Note: this page was updated mid 2015 to remove references to undercover policing, but the version of 27 March 2015 has been archived by the Undercover Research Group.
- ↑ Damion Baird, Covert Policing Ethics Committee - response to an FOIA request of Peter Salmon, Metropolitan Police Service, 27 August 2015 (accessed 30 August 2015).
- ↑ Rob Evans, Scotland Yard shut down undercover police unit because it broke rules, The Guardian, 26 July 2015 (accessed 12 September 2015).
- ↑ Alastair Jeffrey, Profile, LinkedIn.com, undated (accessed 13 September 2015).
- ↑ High Stakes Persuasion, The Team, Adam Pacifico profile, corporate website, undated (accessed 21 June 2015).
- ↑ John Adams, About, John-Adams.co.uk (personal website), undated (accessed 21 June 2015).
- ↑ Battle Of Ideas, 2010 Conference: Speaker Detail: John Adams, Institute of Ideas / BattleOfIdeas.org.uk, 2010 (accessed 21 June 2015).
