The truth, the whole truth, or nothing but 50% of the truth? What is known of its undercovers and managers and what is still to come…
Dónal O’Driscoll, Undercover Research Group, 30 April 2018
Updated to account for release of 6 names on 1 May 2018.
Over the last few months details of the Metropolitan Police officers who worked for the political secret police unit the Special Demonstration Squad (SDS) have been slowly emerging from the Undercover Policing Inquiry. Piecing together the information, here are the figures for what we know, and what it indicates about those as yet unknown.
The Inquiry is currently working through anonymity applications from SDS officers, both undercover and management. They use a ‘nominal’ system, where each officer is referred to by a cipher – a number prefixed by the letters HN – the H comes from Operation Herne, the Met’s internal investigation into the SDS, who initially assigned the numbers to individuals.
In July 2018, the Inquiry will start hearing anonymity applications in relation to officers from the other main political undercover unit, the National Public Order Intelligence Unit (NPOIU), who will be given ciphers beginning with EN – from Operation Elter, the NPOIU’s counter-part to Operation Herne. So for the moment, we can only do reliable calculations for the Special Demonstration Squad.
In February 2017, the National Police Chiefs Council told the Undercover Policing Inquiry that it was believed there were 118 undercover officers in the SDS, with a further 83 management and ‘backroom staff’. (For those following the numbers check out the Campaign Opposing Police Surveillance page on the subject).
From the material released, we know a significant number of SDS undercovers went on to be managers in the unit, however, we are presuming they are not counted in the figure of 83 managers – this may not be the case, but assuming it is, it gives an upper figure of 201 people in the unit over its forty year existence, from undercover constable up to rank of Detective Chief Inspector.
The Undercover Research Group have pages listing all material relating to the HN numbers released by the Inquiry to date, and information drawn from other sources. The purpose of this article is to break down what we know of the 201 – what details we have, what is to come, and what is missing.
The figures
As the pie chart demonstrates, to date we have been or will be given 62 of the spycops’ cover names. There are 22 given full anonymity and for 6 of them, the cover names are apparently lost. This leaves 28 spycops still to be dealt with. If these trends continue, by the end of the process we will have 68% of cover names (or roughly two thirds), with 25% (a quarter) fully anonymous.
28 SDS officers (both undercovers and managers) are listed as still under consideration by the Inquiry, but no details of their applications have been listed – given the numbers, it is likely these are (as of 1 May 2018) all undercovers.
More detail
Of the 62 SDS undercovers whose cover names will not be restricted, 37 now have cover and/or real names associated to them. Of those with names, 13 were first made public by campaigners, while 24 released for the first time by the Inquiry – though in several cases, campaigners were already investigating them. Six of the officers have cover names not ascertained or recorded. All bar two were infiltrating left wing or animal rights groups. As of 1 May 2018 all publicly released undercovers were confirmed.
A further 25 cover names are either listed for release, or at least the Inquiry’s Chair, Sir John Mitting, says he is ‘minded to’ release them. When done, this will bring a total of 62 names in the public domain, plus the six lost.
However, Mitting has issued rulings or otherwise indicated that cover names will not be released for 22 undercovers. This leaves 28 unaccounted for (ignoring a few extra we know from the Operation Herne and Ellison reports). As there are 28 outstanding applications before the Inquiry which we have no further details the initial conclusion to be drawn is that they all relate to the remaining spycops and no further managers are seeking anonymity.
Managers
Of the 83 managers, we have 37 known from the Inquiry or other sources, leaving a shortfall of 46. If the above analysis is correct, then almost all of them are not seeking anonymity (or are deceased). Their names will be released by the inquiry as documents are produced in the evidence stage. Only two have been granted full anonymity so far, with another known to be seeking it.
At the moment, the Inquiry is not taking a proactive approach in listing the managers in the way they are with cover names of undercovers, so we are likely to have to wait until disclosure in the evidence phase for further details there.
Of the real names of the SDS undercovers, seven are known, and of the managers, three are known – though only one of these, manager Phil Saunders, has emerged from the Inquiry to date.
The Breakdown
List of all undercovers referenced to date: 95
1 (probably Matt Rayner), 2 (Andy Coles), 3 (Jason Bishop), 5 (John Dines), 7, 8, 9, 10 (Bob Lambert), 12, 13, 14 (Jim Boyling), 15 (Mark Jenner), 16, 17, 19 (Malcolm Shearing), 20 (Tony Williams), 21, 23, 25, 26 (Christine Green), 27, 40, 41, 43 (Peter Francis), 45 (Dave Robertson), 56 (Alan ‘Nick’ Nicholson), 58, 60 ( Dave Evans), 64, 66 (=EN327), 67 (from Ellison; application still to come), 68, 71, 72, 77 (Jaqueline Anderson) 78, 79 (Ross MacInnes) 81 (David Hagan), 82, 83, 85 (Roger Pearce), 88, 89, 95, 96, 104 (Carlo Neri), 106, 109, 112, 118 (Simon Wellings), 122, 123, 125, 155, 200, 218 (Barry Morris), 241, 294(*), 296, 297 (Rick Gibson), 298 (Michael Scott), 300 (‘Jimmy’), 301 (Bob Stubbs), 302, 303, 304, 321 (Bill Lewis), 322, 323(*), 326 (Douglas Edwards), 327(*), 329 (John Graham), 330 (Don de Freitas), 331(*), 333, 334 (Margaret White), 335(*), 336 (Dick Epps), 337, 338(*), 330 (Stewart Goodman), 340, 341, 343 (John Clinton), 344, 345 (Peter Fredericks), ?346(*), 347 (Alex Sloan), 348 (Sandra), 349, 351, 353 (Gary Roberts, 354, 355, 356/124 (Billy Biggs)
(*) cover name not ascertained. Unplaced is Mike Chitty; the latter has been confirmed by the Inquiry but without an associated HN number.
Management & Staff referenced to date: 38
24, 34, 35(^), 52, 53, 59, 61, 69 (from Herne), 86, 99, 108, 120, 127, 129, 146, 190, 204, 216, 268, ?275, 308, 311, 318, 325, 328, 332(^) 358, 593, 608, 819, 1251 (Phil Saunders), 1668, 2152, 3093, 3095, 3378, Conrad Dixon, Keith Edmondson
(^ real name to be restricted) Some details from other sources and some have yet to be mentioned by the Inquiry. Applications to restrict real names not all decided for some of these.
Applications to come on SDS officers: 28
These could be either management or undercovers. The list includes those who have started to be processed by the Inquiry but details have yet to be released, or the Inquiry has issued directions that applications should be filed in relation to them.
6, 22, 24, 27, 28, 32, 33/98 (duplication), 44, 48, 65, 67, 76, 78, 80, 86, 87, 90, 91, 101, 102, 103, 113, 129, 135, 244, 306, 307, 342.
Cover names listed for release: 25
12, 13, 16, 21, 25, 66, 68, (82), 88, 89, 96, 106, 112, 122, 155, 200, 296, 303, 304, 322, 338, 340, 344, 351, 354.
The position is not entirely clear of the position for those in brackets.
Undercovers whose cover names will be restricted: 22
7, 9, 17, 23, 27, 40, 41, 58, 64, 71, 72, 83, 109, 123, 125, 241, 302, 333, 337, 341, 349, 355
Doesn’t include those whose cover names have not been ascertained. Includes where restriction applications are at only the minded-to point.
Missing from Inquiry to date
The following numbers have yet to make an appearance in the Inquiry, assuming they have been actually used. Some are mentioned in sources outside of the Inquiry, though.
4, 11, 18, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 36, 37, 38, 39, 42, 46, 47, 49, 50, 51, 52 (mentioned in Ellison as SDS Mgmt), 54, 55, 57, 62, 63, 69, 70, 73, 74, 75, 76, 84, 87, 91, 92, 93, 94, 97, 100, 101 (Ellison), 102, 105, 107, 110, 111, 114, 115, 116, 117, 119, 121, 126, 128, 130-134, 136-145, 147-154, 156-199 (183 is Richard Walton), 201-203, 205-215, 217, 219-240, 242, 243, 245-267, 269-293, 295, 299, 305, 309, 310, 312-317, 319, 320, 324, 350, 352, etc. No mention of Conrad Dixon or Jason Bishop as yet.
98 is duplicated under 33, while 124 is duplicated under 356.
The order in which the numbers have been assigned are somewhat arbitrary, and not every number will apply to an SDS officer, as it is Operation Herne practice was to assign every officer mentioned a number regardless of their role, e.g. N315 was a witness protection officer assigned to Stephen Lawrence’ family.
Some groupings are obvious though – the first set of 20 or so are all from the mid-1990s, indicating they are grouped around the deployment of Peter Francis, the whistleblower who helped undercover the scandal, which would indicate the initial focus of early Operation Herne work being on officers he would have been active with. We also see later groupings such as the very early SDS officers being placed in the mid-300s.
If you spot any mistakes in the numbers, please let us know. We will update this article as more information comes out.