Association of Chief Police Officers will be stripped of power to run operational units, says Home Office minister
The Association of Chief Police Officers is to be stripped of its power to run operational units in the wake of the case of Mark Kennedy, the undercover police officer who spent seven years posing as an environmental activist.
The Home Office minister, Nick Herbert, acknowledged for the first time that "something had gone very wrong" in the Kennedy case, which led to the collapse of the trial of six people accused of planning to invade a Nottinghamshire power station.
Herbert told MPs the case demonstrated strongly that Acpo should no longer have the responsibility for national organisations such as the unit that runs covert operations gathering intelligence on domestic extremists in England and Wales.
He disclosed to the Commons home affairs select committee that the Metropolitan police is poised to take over control of the national public order intelligence unit (NPOIU) to provide "proper accountability" for its activities.
He said a lead force such as the Met or the soon to be established National Crime Agency should take over national operational units such as the NPOIU.
"The government is strongly of the view that there needs to be proper accountability for Acpo and its successor body," he said.
"Units like this should not be operated by Acpo and they should be operated either by a lead police force or in future the National Crime Agency where there is proper governance in place." Acpo currently runs national units involved in running counter-terrorism work, domestic extremism, vehicle crime and criminal records.
A second blow to the future of Acpo, the professional strategy body for the police service, was dealt when it emerged today that the Association of Police Authorities have refused to continue to fund the body, pleading lack of finance. The home secretary, Theresa May, has written to the APA asking them to reconsider their decision.
Senior Met officers today promised that the activities of undercover officers will be brought within the London's force's "control and command system" to ensure such operations are conducted within the rules, lawfully and ethically.
"We have to make sure that we don't overexpose them," said the Met's acting commissioner, Tim Godwin. "We have to make sure that we don't leave them too long if that is the case."
Godwin said the domestic extremism unit had already been identified by Acpo as needing proper accountability. "As a result negotiations are in hand to bring it into the Met so that it would come within our command and control system, which would ensure a) compliance with the law, b) compliance with rules and c) compliance with ethics."
Herbert told MPs he had no knowledge of the case until the Guardian disclosed that the prosecution of six activists planning to invade Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station collapsed because of Kennedy's role in organising and funding it.
He also refused to comment on claims by MPs that both the names of the business secretary, Vince Cable, and the Green party leader, Caroline Lucas, were listed on the domestic extremism database simply because they had been present at peaceful protests.
The home affairs committee chairman, Keith Vaz, who said Kennedy was "no James Bond", also pressed the minister to investigate the alleged �200,000 expenses bill run up by Kennedy.
Herbert said such undercover operations were matters for the police within the legal framework of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 and under the oversight of the surveillance commissioner.
"In this case it is clear that something operationally has gone very wrong and that is now the subject of an Independent Police Complaints Commission investigation," said Herbert.
"I think everybody is concerned by the Kennedy case and we have an IPCC precisely to investigate this kind of thing. It is right that the IPCC should look into it and then we should take note of that."
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/jan/18/mark-kennedy-undercover-end-acpo
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