2009-11-25
Inquiry finds undercover police deployed at G20 protests to spy on activists, contrary to Bob Broadhurst’s denial to MPs
A Scotland Yard commander was accused of misleading parliament tonight after an inquiry found that undercover police were secretly deployed at the G20 protests to spy on activists, contrary to the police chief’s denials.
Commander Bob Broadhurst, who had overall command of the G20 policing operation, told the home affairs select committee in May that “no plain clothes officers [were] deployed at all” during the demonstrations in the City of London.
It has emerged that 25 undercover City of London police were stationed around the Bank of England to gather “intelligence” on protesters on 1 and 2 April. Broadhurst stands by the evidence he gave to MPs, claiming the deployment of undercover officers was unknown to him.
The disclosure will add to pressure on the Metropolitan police, who will tomorrow be forced to react to the findings of a long-awaited government inquiry into the policing of protest. This inquiry, by Denis O’Connor, head of the government’s policing inspectorate, was set up after criticism of the Met’s handling of the protests, at which Ian Tomlinson, a newspaper seller, died after being attacked by police.
The inquiry’s report is expected to call for a radical overhaul of public order policing, and to suggest that the heavy-handed way that forces handle protest threatens a broader breakdown in trust in the police.
Details about the use of undercover officers were revealed in four months of correspondence between senior police officers and MPs, who were surprised by the evidence given by Broadhurst when he appeared with the Met commissioner, Sir Paul Stephenson. Both men were questioned by the Liberal Democrat MP Tom Brake on the use of plain clothes officers. Brake, the MP for Carshalton and Wallington, had seen a video broadcast by the Guardian that apparently showed two plain clothes officers wielding batons and walking among a line of riot police.
Broadhurst replied: “The officers we deploy for intelligence purposes at public order are forward intelligence team officers who [wear] full police uniforms with a yellow jacket with blue shoulders.” He added: “There were not plain clothes officers deployed by me or anybody on the operation.” But later he wrote to Brake, revealing that the officers in the video, shot by Jason Parkinson on 2 April, were City of London officers.
The assistant commissioner at the City of London police, Frank Armstrong, then told the MP that about 25 undercover officers were deployed during the protests.
Keith Vaz, chairman of the select committee, has written to Broadhurst suggesting the disclosure about plain clothes officers “contradicts” his evidence to MPs. Broadhurst claimed the officers filmed marching among Met and City of London riot police were “evidence gatherers” seeking to identify a certain protester.
Brake said Broadhurst had “inadvertently misled” parliament, thus revealing a “startling lack of co-ordination” in the top ranks. “If plain clothes officers were only deployed to gather intelligence why is one clearly seen brandishing a baton?”