The trouble with reporting spycops

This first appeared in the June 2026 issue of the Freelance, magazine of NUJ London Freelance Branch, ahead of "Tranche 3, Phase 3" of the Undercover Policing Inquiry. Tranche 3, Phase 3 deals with the managers who ran the Met's Special Demontstration Squad unit of undercover police officers. It's still possible at the time of writing to turn up on the day to follow Inquiry hearings from the public gallery in person, or to negotiate being able to follow it online via the Live Link.

REPORTING THE Undercover Policing Inquiry is complicated, not least by secrecy orders that are themselves secret. The UCPI is the public inquiry into undercover police officers who infiltrated over a thousand political campaigns and groups from 1968 onwards. It resumes on 15 June, with another “tranche” of hearings - this one questioning and cross-examining the managers who ran the Special Demonstration Squad (SDS) unit of “undercovers”. Read more...