THE HAIRIES

See Also: BURGERS McDonalds, McLibel; THE POLICE New Scotland Yard, Special Branch; RIOTS

In the late 1960s a series of demonstrations were held in London to oppose the American government's involvement in the Vietnam War. In 1968 two protests took place in front of the United States Embassy in Grosvenor Square. The Metropolitan Police was ill-prepared for the violence that broke out at both of them. Subsequently, the force set up the Special Demonstration Squad as part of the Special Branch. The unit's purpose was to try to prevent public disorder recurring on London's streets. Members of the Squad infiltrated groups that had been assessed as being likely to try to foster bloodshed. Therefore, its officers were no longer bound by the regulations that covered how police personnel maintained their appearance. As a result, within the force they became known as The Hairies .

S.D.S. officers went undercover for up to five years at a time. They worked principally to try to facilitate actions that would forestall violence and not to gather evidence for possible prosecutions. They were sanctioned to witness criminal acts and even to carry them out without having to be concerned either that any potential court case might be compromised or that they themselves might be subject to disciplinary action.

New identities were created by using the birth certificates of people who had died while they had been very young. Whenever an officer joined the Squad s/he was given a leaving do as though s/he was leaving the force altogether. This was because the person was going into deep cover during which s/he would only deal with other officers who were serving in the unit. The need to lead a double-life left some Hairies with psychological problems. In at least one instance, an officer opted to terminate his links to the Met and assume his created identity. This was because he had come to prefer it to his real one. As a result, a rule was introduced that S.D.S. officers had to be married so that they would have stronger links back to their real lives.

Hairies were usually intellectually more sophisticated than most of their police colleagues. Therefore, they could find themselves to be conflicted by their work. Sometimes individuals developed sympathy for the goals of the groups that they had infiltrated and appreciated that their very presence within them might hinder the advancement of progressive aspirations.

In 1993 Stephen Lawrence, a Black teenager, was murdered on a street in Eltham. A number of groups were established to campaign upon the issue. In the wake of the Welling anti-fascist riot (1993) the Met directed the Squad to operate against those campaigns that were in essence fronts for totalitarian groups that were seeking to exploit the matter for their own unrelated, political ends.

The Squad metamorphosed into being the National Public Order Intelligence Unit. In 2011 the trial of a group of eco-activists collapsed. As a direct result, the Unit was the subject of considerable media coverage.

Two years later The Guardian journalists Paul Lewis and Rob Evans published their book Undercover: The True Story of Britain's Secret Police. This was based in large part upon information that had been given to them by Peter Francis, a former hairy . It emerged that the Squad had been asked to find dirt that could be used to discredit the Lawrence family and Duwayne Brooks, a friend of Stephen's who had been with him on the night that he had been murdered.

The National Public Order Intelligence Unit (N.P.O.I.U.) was formed in 1999 to monitor green campaigners and animal rights campaigners. The Squad was wound up in 2008. In 2011 the existence and operation of this body received considerable media coverage after the trial of a group of eco-activists had collapsed.

In 2011 a case against 26 campaigners who had been protesting against Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station collapsed after it emerged that Mark Kennedy had been a Unit officer.

In 2015 the Metropolitan Police paid substantial compensation and made a formal apology to eight women who had brought a case against it for gross violation . The Home Office announced that an Undercover Policing Inquiry would be set up.

Officers often left their relationships abruptly, some of their ex-partners experiencing P.T.S.D.-like symptoms. A number of their former lovers sought to find out what had happened to their partners. Using informal channels in the Home Office they were able to discover that they had been involved with police officers.

In 2020 the Undercover Policing Inquiry started to hear evidence about the activities of 139's.D.S. and N.P.O.I.U. officers while undercover. At the time, a number of them had been charged for misconduct with regard to the intimate relationships that they had had. One officer had been found guilty of gross misconduct. He had hidden a relationship from his commanding officers and revealing confidential material to an inappropriate person.

In 2022 the Investigatory Powers Tribunal ruled in favour of Kate Wilson in the legal action that she had brought against the Met and the National Police Chiefs Council with regard to the relationship she had had with Kennedy, while he had been undercover.

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Website: www.met.police.uk www.stephenlawrence.org.uk (The Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust)

David Backhouse 2024