NCJ Number
76535
Date Published
1980
Length
58 pages
Annotation
The development and activities of Britain's Special Patrol Group (SPG), a police unit trained and equipped to handle mass disorder, are described.
Abstract
The SPG is an antiriot, paramilitary police unit. Currently, it consists of 204 officers divided into 6 units; it has its own independent command structure. Each of the six units has three vans and a number of unmarked cars for surveillance. A fully-equipped van carries riot shields, pistols, rifles, submachine guns, smoke grenades, truncheons, and visors. Based on eyewitness and newspaper accounts, SPG operations in black communities have been attended by severe injuries and death inflicted by members of the SPG. In the face of eyewitness testimony and medical evidence, such incidents have been covered-up or incompetently handled by the police, such that no convictions of SPG officers have occurred. The regular use of violence by the SPG would indicate that a policy of confrontation and violence as a deterrent to mass demonstrations and disorder exists within the SPG command. Under such a policy, it can be anticipated that the mass resistance and disorder that will attend the growing economic crisis in Britain will be met by violent force from the SPG, thus creating fear and hostility in the populace on a broad scale. End notes and footnotes are provided.