Campaign Opposing Police Surveillance
An alliance of people spied on by Britain's political secret police
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Campaign Opposing Police Surveillance: Placards outside the spycops hearing, Royal Courts of Justice

What is the Campaign Opposing Police Surveillance?

The Campaign Opposing Police Surveillance (COPS) helps support, promote and coordinate the quest for justice for people affected by political undercover police spying.

COPS works to ensure such abuses do not continue.

Why is COPS necessary?

Numerous organisations, campaigns and individuals have been targeted by Britain’s secret police for decades. This undermines efforts for social justice that should be welcomed in a democratic society.

Everyone has the right to work towards social and environmental justice, without fear of persecution, objectification, or interference in their lives – including by undercover police.

However, hundreds of people have been spied on and psychologically and sexually abused by police officers for being part of such campaigns. In many cases, police surveillance extended to people who simply knew campaigners.

COPS was founded in 2013 to help these people and oppose the forces that spied on them.

COPS condemns:

  • Police spying on families, friends, witnesses, and campaigners seeking truth and justice over the deaths of loved ones, such as the family of murdered teenager Stephen Lawrence
  • The institutional racism connected with police spying on such campaigns
  • The gross intrusion of undercover officers forming intimate and sexual relationships, whilst in their undercover personas, with people they are spying on
  • The institutional sexism connected with police forming such relationships
  • The theft and use of the identities of dead children by undercover officers
  • Police aiding illegal blacklisting of trade union members and political activists, and passing information to private investigators and corporations
  • The large number of wrongful convictions brought about by misconduct of police and prosecutors
  • The creation of police files on solicitors representing campaigners

We believe these practices continue today. There is no evidence that they have stopped.
Previous inquiries and reports have failed to provide any open and transparent information on the activities of these secret state units.

The Undercover Policing Inquiry has faced delay after delay. Now, the final report is not expected until 2026.

So far, the Inquiry has demonstrated that the entire undercover policing operation has been a direct political attack on left-wing and progressive campaigns. This attack comes mainly on behalf of the UK Secret Service. It was sanctioned (and covered up) at the highest levels of Government.

In February 2023 the Undercover Policing Inquiry finally concluded its first phase, known as Tranche 1. This looked at undercover political policing from the formation of the Special Demonstration Squad (SDS) in 1968, until 1982.

The police and government have failed

In January 2023, the Inquiry’s own legal team found that the Metropolitan Police and government had failed to consider the legality and justification of the SDS activities during the 1970s. Any such consideration would have likely concluded that the SDS should have been closed down.

Thanks to the campaigners and lawyers who have worked so hard to expose these facts, the results of the Inquiry so far are devastating for the police, security services and Government.

What next for COPS?

The Campaign Opposing Police Surveillance continues to work for:

  • The end of spying on social justice and environmental campaigns
  • The end of spying on families, friends, witnesses and campaigners seeking truth and justice over the death of loved ones
  • The outlawing of police officers forming intimate and sexual relationships whilst in their undercover persona
  • Support and encouragement for police whistle-blowers
  • Protective measures to prevent serving and retired intelligence-gathering officers from passing information to private sector corporations and investigators
  • A more thorough, transparent independent inquiry
  • The abolition of the Investigatory Powers Tribunal and its secret trials, which have no right of appeal
  • People spied on by the political policing units to be informed of this and given access to their files
  • Information to be provided to the families of deceased children whose identities were used by undercover officers
  • A public apology from the police to all those affected

 

See here for the original campaign statement from autumn 2013.

We welcome donations and affiliations – please see the contact page for details