Tuesday 24 June 2014

Police Liaison Officers (PLOs) - the Friendly Face of the NFU!

I just wonder if many who were at the big London Badger March on 1st June 2013 and  remember the police videoing us as we marched through the streets of London? In this case the police officers were wearing orange bib Hi-Vis jackets and were attempting to capture good quality images of any Sabs they saw on the march. This was intelligence gathering in order that the government sponsored badger cull could proceed with many key activists monitored or taken out of the picture by surveillance.


Blue Bib PLOs Are They Your Friend?

Also badgerists who have been involved in organising Badger Marches have been contacted by local Police Liaison Officers (PLOs) in order to ‘help them’ keep safe during the march and they have been follow-up calls to seek and information out of these organisers.
Now a review of Operation Mansell, the policing of last year’s anti-fracking protests in Balcombe in Sussex. This was the one that the only Green MP Caroline Lucas was arrested along with her teenage son. Well a police review has confirmed that Police Liaison Officers (PLOs), usually identified by wearing blue-bibbed Hi-Vis jackets, now routinely deployed at protests and demonstrations, are now seen by senior police officers as playing a ‘pivotal role’ in gathering intelligence on protesters. In some cases the police have been accused of gathering intelligence and intimidating protesters after a film shows plainclothes police officers visiting a fracking campaigner's home and questioning her on her involvement with the anti-fracking movement and association with UK Uncut!

PLO - Weapon Out And Ready For Action!

Hertfordshire Police and Essex Police have carried out a review of Sussex police handling of the Balcombe anti-fracking protests against the company Cuadrilla and have concluded that the Police Liaison Officers (PLTs) in Sussex displayed good practices and outcomes that have had a dramatic and positive impact on the policing of protest in Sussex in line with our arguments concerning their effectiveness.
We should remember that it was Hertfordshire Police that also concluded that Avon & Somerset constabulary achieved “Best Practice” by having members of both the NFU and the private cull company present in the police HQ Control Room.

One can only conclude that both Avon & Somerset and Gloucestershire constabularies are preparing for future protests by anti-badger cull protesters but are starting to share strategy and intelligence with other forces around the country; the term “Big Brother is watching you” has become a reality!

I have not been to the Gloucestershire zone, but they are a set of Vehicle Number Plate Registration Capture cameras on the A358 as you leave Taunton and this could signal to the police that for example the Manchester Sabs are now entering the West Somerset cull zone.
Vehicle ID Cameras on the A358 Near the Cross Keys Roundabout

The government have funded the policing of the cull in support of the NFU who just want the badgers shot dead by their cull contractors using the police as a private security company.

So when we see the police out in the cull zone are we looking at a hijacked police force operating under the terms and conditions of the NFU sponsored badger cull?

Saturday 14 June 2014

Somerset Badger Police

As a Labour party member and local town councillor with a keen interest in animal welfare I chose to attend the Badger Cull zone in West Somerset and partake in the lawful and peaceful Somerset Badger Patrols that were running each night during the cull period.
We often heard in the press that Avon & Somerset constabulary were keen to allow peaceful protest during the cull period and that they would remain neutral as they policed the cull area.

Spotlight: Badger and Sue Mountstevens

However this would appear so far removed from the truth as meetings with the NFU commenced at the Bath & West show in May 2013, three months before the cull started. 
The shooting started on the 26 August 2013 and continued for a six week period ending on the 7 October. During this period they were no meeting with any anti-badger groups, but by then Avon & Somerset Constabulary had agreed to have personnel from both the NFU and the newly set-up NFU sponsored private limited company HNV Associates Ltd in the control room at police HQ. 

This cull company HNV Associates lists its nature of business as Hunting, trapping and related service activities!

One may begin to wonder about Avon & Somerset constabulary deciding to have personnel from the Countryside Alliance during any fox hunting related policing they may undertake?

Hunting Scene

They are various other grouping within the countryside that has the view that wildlife is a nuisance and the badger in particular in relation to the many pheasant shoots. Now you only have to look at the locations of the two badger cull zones in West Somerset and Gloucestershire; both these locations are home too many pheasant shooting estates and are awash with an array eager and keen of blood sports enthusiasts all to ready to participate in the cull. 
With the advent of solar farms and bio-fuel crops being developed, then in the rush for quick profits the overarching desire is to have no legally protected species of wildlife for many countryside businesses, our native wildlife simply gets in the way of countryside profits.

But perhaps the worst aspect of the Badger Cull is the way that the shooting has been allocated to private companies like HNV Associates Ltd and then to individuals. 
These companies are then able to recruit the local blood sports hobbyists; who generally tend to be lampers, shooters, gamekeepers, terrier-men and supporters of the local hunts. Many will also be members of the Countryside Alliance and so the circle of evil is complete in the countryside.


Quad Bikes racing around the countryside many unmarked and unregisters loaded with armed men whose sole purpose is to kill badgers the iconic symbol of all the Wildlife Trusts and a protected species, fully aided and supported by Avon & Somerset constabulary!


Hunting Quad Bikes in the Countryside!


Many of these Quad Bikes are classed as farm vehicles and so required no tax or insurance but often they will be seen driving along main roads and country lanes, tailgating any strange vehicles they come upon. Are the police interested? Of source not! And just to add a good pinch of salt into our wound, we as tax payers pay around £50 each toward their firearm licences!!


Just How Many Cullers Can You Get On A Quad Bike?

But to return to the Badger Cull, following the six weeks of shooting madness a week of calm reigned until the three week extension was rolled out and the shooting started again as the badgers had moved the goalposts and not enough were killed.
It was during this period that the PCC Sue Mountstevens did manage to meet with some the the anti-badger people. Better late than never some may say. But by this time serious policing issues were beginning to emerge. Some examples were cull contractors shooting over protesters heads at close range and a 999 call managed in part by NFU personnel in the police control room, where the victim of assault by cull contractors was re-classified as the suspect had a full vehicle search carried out. What this Avon & Somerset's two headed coin in play, where heads the badger gets it?
Anti badger cull protesters vehicles attacked by explosive rook scarers, just to add to the noise, distress and madness in the darkness of West Somerset's cull zone. The fact that interfering with these devices was an offence under the Explosives Act just did not register with the police as again heads the badger side gets it was the usual cry from the police. Just image how long a prison sentence any badger protester would get for letting of a rook scarer, The key would be thrown away!

Somerset Badger Patrol

I was also concerned that from speaking to a number of fellow badger patrol collogues that a high level of personnel searches, spot checks on vehicles; some for having the wrong shade of red on tail lights were carried out. Again I assume that this is the reason that the police were taking down anti badger cull protesters vehicle registration numbers in Williton, car park (where Somerset Badger Patrol met each night) and then distributed these lists at each nightly police briefing. One can only assume that this was to allow police officers on duty to stop and search and harassment Badger Patrol members. It has also been commented on that both the NFU and the HNV Associates were also collecting unfamiliar vehicle registration numbers in the cull zone.
Again it would appear that Avon and Somerset constabulary may be acting as agents, stewards or marshals of the NFU and the private limited cull company HNV Associates and it begs the question as to whether any personnel data on anti badger cull protesters and there vehicles were exchanged between the NFU and Avon & Somerset constabulary?

I and others did meet the Police and Crime Commissioner Sue Mountstevens in March 2014 at Williton car park along with fellow Somerset Badger Patrol members and we did ask about the presence of the NFU officials in the control room. She stated that that decision was made by the Chief Constable (who is currently suspended from duty) and she cannot comment on operations issues. However the police and PCC would have you believe a picture of a well-managed control room. But the police’s own report gives a very different picture. It suggests that the control room was a chaotic place, where people were shouting across each other and conflicting information was flying back and forth between badger killers and police personnel.

PCC Meets Somerset Badger Patrol

The PCC, Sue Mountstevens is now eager to met with anti badger cull protesters in a post cull attempt to appear to show an even handed approach to the badger cull policing, but this seems nothing more than PR exercise as already Avon & Somerset constabulary have now stated that having NFU personnel in there control room allowed “Best Practice” for the policing of the badger cull. The NFU personnel gave real-time information on the shooting and God knows what else for the police to act on. The classification of “Best Practice” is being quoted while numerous complaints; both internal and external to the IPPC are still outstanding simply beggars belief.

I am gravely concerned that organisations such as the Nation Farmers Union and its private owned company HNV Associates Ltd working so closely with our local police force as the Nation Farmers Union is nothing more than a Trade Association and political pressure group working for the benefit of a small unelected and unaccountable rural minority of large rich landowners.
Avon & Somerset constabulary appear to have been drawn into a political role during this badger cull. It is no secret that the “Holy Trinity” of the Countryside Lobby groups is made up of the National Farmers Union (NFU), Countryside Alliance (CA) and the Countryside Land & Business Association (CLA) an all of these groups are 100% in support of the badger cull and a massive majority in favor of a Conservative government.

If anyone did think that having a PCC would allow openness, honesty and transparency into our police force then in this case nothing could be further from the truth. Sue Mountstevens was a magistrate and was a member of the now disbanded Police Authority and a local business woman. One could say she is part of the establishment and will not rock the boat when it comes to policing controversial countryside issues.

We only need to look back to the policing involved during the miners strike some thirty years ago. Yet again another black period for British policing. Are we starting to see history repeating itself as the police, government and its allies like the NFU work together to push through an ugly agenda? Is a new Water Cannon on order for Avon & Somerset constabulary to flush these pesky Badger protesters into the Bristol Channel?

Policing the Miners Strike 1984

Are they only one side to the badger cull policing where both the senior management police team and the PCC meet and spin a united PR front. The Chief Constable who made the decision to allow the NFU and its cull contractors into his HQ control room is currently suspended on another issue. However support for this decision appears to be widespread within the police senior management team and of course the PCC has a 'get out of jail card' with the line: "I cannot possibly comment on operational matters."

Is this what you expected for those 19% who did bothered to vote for a PCC in Avon & Somerset?
To me it looks like Bank Account policing where the police support those with the most money.