Guardian : Specialist protest squads at centre of investigations into G20 police violence

Specialist protest squads at centre of investigations into G20 police violence

Police territorial support teams, used at demonstrations and marches, involved in previous controversy

Sandra Laville, crime correspondent | April 16, 2009

Officers from the Metropolitan police's specialist territorial support teams are at the centre of investigations over the use of unprovoked violence during the G20 protests.

Both of the officers who have been suspended in the last week were part of the force's territorial support group (TSG), a unit of 720 officers who operate in mobile squads to combat serious public disorder, work with other officers to tackle high-volume crime, provide the expertise to force entry into buildings, and carry out anti-terrorist arrests and stop and searches.

As the Independent Police Complaints Commission began an independent investigation into a TSG sergeant seen on the most recent video using his gloved hand to hit a female member of the public, the Met chief, Sir Paul Stephenson, announced that he had asked Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary to review public order policing tactics in the light of the G20. He also ordered a review of all footage held by the police in order to establish whether any other officers should be subject to investigation.

Privately, Stephenson has in the last two days sent all his officers a morale-boosting video message saying that they should continue their good work. He labels Ian Tomlinson's death a "tragedy" and notes that while the controversy goes on into the policing of G20, a Metropolitan police officer injured last weekend in a separate incident still lies in hospital fighting for his life.

While trying to allay public concern over the G20 policing, Stephenson in his private message was addressing frustration within the Met rank and file that the policing of one demonstration, out of hundreds, has so spectacularly backfired.

Some rank and file officers, particularly those experienced in public order policing, said that the latest video footage of the TSG sergeant striking a woman was being viewed out of context.

At least one public order officer pointed out that striking someone with the back of a forearm or hand was a defensive tactic all officers in those circumstances are taught to use. TSG officers are trained to the highest levels in public order, and as such attract higher levels of complaints than other officers because they are dealing with fraught, tense, difficult situations, according to a police source.

But the TSG has been involved in serious controversy in the past. A judge said last month that six TSG officers had carried out a "serious, gratuitous and prolonged" attack on a terrorism suspect, Babar Ahmed, six years ago. The team of six officers involved in the attack on Ahmed, who was arrested at his home by the TSG unit, had already been at the centre of as many as 60 complaints about unwarranted assaults on black or Asian men, the Guardian has revealed.

None of the officers involved in the assault on Ahmed has been disciplined and five of them are still working in the territorial support group. The Met said at the time that the complaints were investigated and found to be unsubstantiated.

According to The Job, the force's in-house magazine, TSG officers - who can be identified by a "U" on shoulder epaulette numbers - are better known as the "tough guys and girls" of the Met.

When policing events in which disorder is foreseen, they are issued with "Nato" helmets, flame-retardant overalls, stab vests, gloves, balaclavas and boots. All carry the standard batons, pepper spray and cuffs, but are also authorised to use tasers, and firearm-trained TSG officers carry pistols or submachine guns.

TSG officers operate in units of three Mercedes vanloads, each of which comprise six constables and a sergeant.

On the day of the G20 protest their role would have been defined by the main "gold" commanders who drew up the policing operation and stated in the days before G20 that the Met were "up for it". On-the-ground decisions in what was a fluid fast-moving situation would have been made by "bronze" commanders.

The TSG was created in 1987 after the controversy over its predecessor, the special patrol group, which received a number of complaints of police brutality. These complaints culminated in the death of schoolteacher Blair Peach, who was fatally injured in April 1979 during a demonstration in Southall, west London, by the Anti-Nazi League against a National Front march.