Training | 2010.01.17
Police accused of undermining protests
Documents reveal head of Kent police urged owner of Kingsnorth to do more to disrupt environmental activists
A chief constable was tonight accused of undermining the public\'s right to protest after documents revealed he urged the owner of a power station to do more to disrupt environmental demonstrators.
Mike Fuller, the chief constable of Kent police, told E.ON it was "grossly inappropriate" for taxpayers to be paying extra for policing of protests at Kingsnorth, and the energy firm should "intervene" beforehand to prevent them taking place.
He has been accused of straying from his duty under human rights legislation that requires the police to neutrally facilitate peaceful protest. Senior officers have repeatedly denied claims that they encourage corporations to scupper environmental activists through the use of high court injunctions. But in a private letter to the head of UK security at E.ON, Fuller urged the German-owned firm to seek "legal remedies" against activists, and suggested using injunctions.
Documents obtained by the Guardian show that he was particularly critical of E.ON for not taking quicker action against Greenpeace activists who had scaled a 200-metre chimney at Kingsnorth in protest against a proposed coal-fired station, which has since been suspended. A jury cleared the six protesters of causing £30,000 of criminal damage in 2008, after they argued the action was legally justified because they were trying to prevent climate change causing greater damage.
Fuller said the protest had required "a significant number of police resources", adding: "There is more that E.ON needs to do to protect their own interests."
The chief constable said his "counter-terrorism security advisors" could assist E.ON in improving security around the site. He wrote that he was "surprised" that E.ON had not already used injunctions to "restrain" protesters and said it should in future take legal action "in advance of protests, where possible, and if not as soon as possible after" they start. He added: "Any potential shortcoming on E.ON\'s part may be converted into an additional financial burden on the police, paid for by the council tax payers of Kent. This seems grossly inappropriate in the circumstances."
Ben Stewart, one of the six activists acquitted, said: "The kind of injunction the police suggested could have resulted in thousands of Greenpeace members being banned from taking part in peaceful protests anywhere near Kingsnorth."
Fuller said he had "never strayed from his duty to remain impartial when policing protests". He said he wrote the letter after the incursion by protesters onto E.ON\'s property when thousands of pounds of damage had been caused.
"My concern was that E.ON should improve their own site security, which if neglected could cause unnecessary costs for the policing of protests, not that individuals who wished to protest should be prevented from doing so." But Kent police has been criticised in official reviews of its handling of the Climate Camp protest at Kingsnorth in 2008, particularly over the use of stop and search. Last week, Fuller told the high court that his force had illegally stop and searched 11-year-old twins and others.
Correspondence previously obtained by the Guardian showed the force also put pressure on the local council to assist with automatic number plate recognition cameras to track protesters. When the council voiced objections, officials were told that senior officers were "less than impressed, given the importance of this operation as the new power station build is likely to create a considerable number of jobs".
More recently, Fuller is understood to have filed last minute objections to drafts of a national review into policing of protest, produced by the chief inspector of constabulary, Denis O\'Connor. His report led to a current review of public order tactics, and the home secretary, Alan Johnson, has told police that they must help to maintain Britain\'s "open democratic society".
For more information, please visit
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/jan/17[...]ingsworth-climate-camp-protest
