Whistleblowers must be protected and allowed to speak out about undercover spies, say campaigners
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Version 0 of 1. Campaigners are calling on the government to ensure that whistleblowers are given protection from prosecution so that they can come forward and give evidence about the police’s use of undercover spies. So far only one former undercover officer, Peter Francis, has publicly blown the whistle on the covert infiltration of political movements. The campaigners have now launched a petition calling on the home secretary Theresa May to state publicly that the official secrets act will not be used against Francis or any other whistleblowers. The petition on the Change.Org site can be read here. Francis spent four years infiltrating anti-racist groups as a member of Scotland Yard’s undercover unit, the Special Demonstration Squad (SDS). But in the last five years, he has been a crucial figure in telling the public about the inner workings of his former unit which infiltrated political groups for 40 years. Related: The Guardian view on whistleblowers: heroes working in the public interest | Editorial He revealed how undercover officers from the unit spied on the family of Stephen Lawrence during their campaign to bring his killers to justice. He also disclosed that he monitored a number of black justice campaigns, involving relatives of mostly black men who had died in suspicious circumstances in police custody. He has also, for instance, shed light on the unit’s use of sexual relationships, theft of dead children’s identities, and use of fake identities in court. Last week, he disclosed that the SDS had gathered intelligence on members of at least five trade unions. Francis has said that on several occasions since he left the Metropolitan police in 2001, the force has threatened to prosecute him under the official secrets act if he revealed anything about the SDS. Police tried to force Channel 4 to hand over documents and unshown footage about his disclosures after he appeared in a television documentary. Under the act, a person bounded by the act commits a fresh offence each time he or she speaks publicly about their official employment. In the petition, the campaigners demand that the home secretary give him authorisation under the official secrets act so that he can “provide a full and frank account” of his undercover work without fear of prosecution. They said that although Francis is willing to talk, he risks being prosecuted every time he speaks, without that authorisation. Related: Blowing it: whistleblowers 10 years onø They specifically ask the home secretary to A year ago, May ordered the judge-led, public inquiry after it was confirmed that undercover officers had spied on the Lawrences. Last week May announced that a senior judge, Lord Justice Pitchford, will lead the inquiry The impetus for the petition has come from an unusual direction - the civil rights and anti-racist organisation, The Monitoring Group, which has led many justice campaigns that have been critical of the work of the police. Suresh Grover and Stafford Scott from the group write in the petition : “In the 35-year history of The Monitoring Group, we have never supported an individual police officer who has confessed to spying on our communities and some of the campaigns that we have coordinated and supported.” “We are doing this because we believe that Peter Francis is genuinely remorseful and committed to righting these wrongs. We believe that rather than hounding Peter Francis, the Metropolitan Police Service should be encouraging and supporting whistleblowers, and allow him to speak about his activities.” Francis said that he personally knew of two former SDS colleagues who had “expressed deep concerns to me about their undercover deployments at the time”. One of them, like him, had gathered information about black justice campaigns that were organised by grieving relatives. He added that confirmation by the home secretary that he would not be prosecuted would hopefully stop the police “from being able to threaten me with arrest” and may encourage other former SDS officers to speak out publicly. He thanked The Monitoring Group for their support and solidarity in launching the petition. He added :”For an organisation as prestigious, long-established and important as The Monitoring Group, who describe themselves as the leading exponent of family-led empowerment and justice campaigns in the UK, to launch a petition on my behalf is truly amazing and humbling. “Especially considering my earlier role as an undercover police SDS spy was to monitor and report back on many of the black justice campaigns, supporters and their families they were actually helping, represented or were in contact with, whilst I was deployed undercover in the 1990s”. |