Why review of undercover police tactics was delayed

THE NEW Metropolitan Police commissioner, Bernard Hogan-Howe, has been forced to cancel the publication today of a report on the use of police spies to infiltrate protest groups after it was alleged that an undercover policeman had given a false name when he appeared in court - under orders from police chiefs.
What did the undercover policeman do?
Metropolitan police officer Jim Boyling was undercover between 1995 and 2000. During that time he infiltrated various groups, including Reclaim the Streets, a group that used non-violent protest, such as the one pictured above, to challenge the dominance of cars.

Boyling was arrested in 1996 for taking part in an occupation of the offices of London Transport. According to the Guardian, he gave the false name Jim Sutton to police and even allowed himself to be prosecuted alongside the activists he spied upon. When he appeared in court charged with disorderly behaviour, he gave evidence under his false name.

Why are activists upset?
Activists allege Boyling used the same lawyers as other activists he was spying on. They say the police robbed them of their right to client-lawyer confidentiality. Mike Schwarz, of Bindmans, the law firm that represented the activists – and, unwittingly, the undercover policeman – told the BBC the affair was "institutionalised police corruption of the legal process".

Has this happened before?
A colleague of Boyling’s said that undercover officers frequently allowed themselves to be prosecuted under their aliases - in cases that would not lead to a prison sentence - as it added to their credibility among the groups they were infiltrating.

Why was a review instigated?
Questions were first raised over the behaviour of police officers who infiltrate non-violent protest groups last year when a spy called Mark Kennedy was exposed. His outing led to the collapse in January 2011 of the trial of activists who had planned a protest at a power station in Nottinghamshire. A German woman claimed she was one of a number of activists who had had a sexual relationship with Kennedy. Other police spies, including Boyling, were outed – and it emerged that Boyling had revealed his identity to an activist before marrying her and having children.

The police had no choice but to announce an inquiry into undercover tactics.

What was the review expected to say?
The review, carried out by police watchdog HM Inspectorate of Constabulary, had been expected to recommend officers should be better supervised and that they should undertake shorter assignments in future.

However, the report was not expected to recommend independent oversight of undercover operations – which even some police chiefs had called for.

When will the report be published?
The HMIC said it was delaying the report because of the allegations: "This is so we can consider the relevance of this information to the recommendations for improvement in undercover policing tactics that we are making in our review." ·