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?