Policing the police: Electro Hippies expose NETCU, WECTU and NPOIU

The Free Range Electro Hippies Collective has just released ‘NETCU, WECTU and NPOIU: Britain’s Secretive Police Force’, a guide to three of the police organisations currently being used to suppress dissent – the National Extremism Tactical Co-ordination Unit, the Welsh Extremism and Counter Terrorism Unit, and the National Public Order Intelligence Unit.

The role of NETCU, WECTU and NPOIU –

* The National Extremism Tactical Co-ordination Unit,
* The Welsh Extremism and Counter Terrorism Unit, and
* The National Public Order Intelligence Unit
– all parts of a private organisation (ACPO) that is exercising public functions in relation to policing policy

– can be seen from two extreme points of view:

* groups working on policy and in a policing support role to protect the public; or,
* under the guise of countering “extremism”, developing policies to crack down on campaigning groups in a way that could be seen as the kernel of what could eventually become a truly “secret” police force.

This report examines what NETCU, WECTU and NPOIU are, and poses the question as to whether private organisations working unaccountably outside of the mainstream police service are compatible with the operation of a free, open and accountable society.

The full guide is downloadable as a PDF:

» Britain’s Secretive Police Force (via the Electro Hippies website)
» Britain’s Secretive Police Force (via Bristle’s Blog)

The Electro Hippies Collective has also put together a facsimile of NETCU’s ‘Policing Protest Pocket Legislation Guide’, presumably recreated from the copy lost by a police officer at Climate Camp last year:

» Policing Protest Pocket Legislation Guide (via the Electro Hippies website)
» Policing Protest Pocket Legislation Guide (via Bristle’s Blog)

Please read and distribute.

(Tip o’ the titfer: NETCUwatch)