On the beat

January 23 2011 - But officer!

The police are getting a bit of a rough time in the press at the moment.

Not that I really care as it's most likely that they deserve it, especially if the stories are true.

Unless you've been on the moon this month, you would have heard about the collapsed trial of the six environmental protestors who were accused of conspiring to shut down Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station and the subsequently allegations that have been made of an undercover officer, who had infiltrated their group as being an agent provocateur. This case along with revelations that undercover officers are usually promiscuous when they are carrying out their job raises serious questions over covert policing and whether it is now time to shine a bright light on this area of law and order.

ACPO, the supervisory body has now been stripped of its role and there are possibilities that common law actions for negligence and misfeasance in public office may follow suit. The former Director of Public Prosecutions made damning comments about the accountability of covert operations and I would agree that at present accountability is scarce in this undercover world and that the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 (RIPA) needs to be more tightly drafted so that activities that are carried out in the name of covert surveillance are proportionate.

It has only been a couple of months since the discovery of West Midlands Police's misguided Project Champion, which installed CCTV and ANPR cameras in East Birmingham, a predominately Muslim community. The chief constable made the best heart-felt apology he could in the circumstances and it has since been reported that the cameras will be removed but at the estimated cost of £630,000. Was it worth it? I don't think so and examples of these types of surveillance projects worry me as I don't think they are isolated cases.

Surveillance is out of control and with the enormous costs attached to running these projects there needs to be a greater degree of proportionately in the decision making process before they are put in action. When they go wrong, they don't just damage the reputation of the police but they damage the fabric of a free society and that takes a long time to heal.

The murky world of undercover policing has now left police officers exposed and the sacred veil that they used to hide behind is no longer there. Proportionate covert policing is the only way forward and this needs to be implemented sooner rather than later for the benefit of all.

Sophie Khan, a solicitor specialising in actions against the police at Imran Khan & Partners