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The Undercover Police Scandal - ITV programme

(8 Posts)
Silvergirl Sun 23-Mar-25 22:41:29

I was more horrified that my tax was being used for such a trivial reason. What a waste of money! As one of the women said, she only gave out leaflets and attended meetings. The wronged women were much brighter and resourceful than the officers.

jocork Sun 23-Mar-25 20:08:37

It was a very good programme and quite shocking. I wonder how the wives of these officers felt or if they even knew. They do now!

Indigo8 Fri 21-Mar-25 17:47:42

In 2014 the Home Secretary Teresa May initiated the Under Cover Policing Enquiry which began in 2015.

It was found that undercover police had infiltrated a great many groups including anti apartheid and anti fascist groups, Greenpeace, Young Liberals, Young Conservatives and Reclaim the Streets, to name but a few.

Oldbat1 Fri 21-Mar-25 15:38:36

Yes we watched it. Felt very sorry for the women involved. These men were leading double lives and starting second families - obviously set up by their police bosses. These officers infiltrated groups but to what end and usefulness???? It was a disgrace.

Primrose53 Fri 21-Mar-25 08:35:32

I was so tired I fell asleep and missed over half of it but what I did see was shocking.

notnecessarilywiser Fri 21-Mar-25 08:15:11

I thought it was an excellent programme. Like you, @Indigo8, I remembered bits of individual cases.

The individual women used the sort of investigative tactics that most people would in their circumstances, and at most discovered that the man who'd abandoned them was a police officer, but this was portrayed as one rogue officer by the authorities at the time. By finding each other and combining their findings the women were able to show that the practice was in fact systemic. Remarkable work by women who had been treated so shabbily.

MayBee70 Thu 20-Mar-25 22:04:27

I’ve just listed to a review about this on the Must Watch podcast and it did come out as a ‘must watch’ so I’ll give it a go. It does sound very disturbing. It said that these police officers led double lives and had wives and families sad.

Indigo8 Thu 20-Mar-25 18:35:06

I watched this programme with mounting disgust. I had a vague recollection of the scandal about a single police officer admitting to a fictitious relationship under a false name in order to infiltrate protest organisations but I had no idea that so many officers went undercover in this way.

I remembered Helen Steel and the McLibel case. I also remembered the report of the covert measures taken by the police to weaken sympathy for Steven Laurence's family. All this was discussed plus a whole lot more.

I had witnessed first hand the heavy handed way that the police handled the anti-Vietnam demonstations outside the American Embassy in Grosvenor Square. It was this demo and the previous peaceful rallies, particularly the CND rallies, that motivated the police to initiate the infiltration into the lives of the people involved.

A huge amount of tax payer's money was spent on these police operations.