The Independent Police Complaints Commission is leading an investigation into the claims, which state a secretive Metropolitan police unit used hackers to illegally access the private emails of hundreds of campaigners and journalists. The allegations were made by an anonymous individual in a letter to Green party peer Jenny Jones, who passed them on to the IPCC.
According to the letter, hacked passwords were given to the Metropolitan police unit, which then regularly checked campaigner email accounts to gather information. The letter listed several passwords, four of which were official Greenpeace accounts.
I will be asking the new Met Commissioner to get a grip on invasive #spycops units — these revelations are a disgrace: https://t.co/Z0D7LFMnxc
— Sian Berry (@sianberry) March 21, 2017
A number reporters and photographers, including two who worked for a leading mainstream center-left publication, are likewise said to have been monitored.
"There is more than enough to justify a full-scale criminal investigation into the activities of police officers and referral to a public inquiry. I have urged the IPCC to act quickly to secure further evidence and find out how many people were victims of this nasty practice," Jones said.
The letter to Jones listed 10 names, alongside specific passwords that they used to access their email accounts. Lawyers at Bindmans, the firm representing Jones, contacted six people on the list and, after outlining the allegations, asked them to volunteer their passwords. All have confirmed the passwords are, or were, correct.
Important petition from @GreenJennyJones — Stop spying on campaigners https://t.co/wiuDgBzg7r
— James (@Green_JamesBee) March 22, 2017
One activist on the list, Colin Newman, has expressed anger at the exposure, noting the account was private and not associated with Greenpeace, to which he is affiliated. Newman no history criminal activity, having been cautioned by the police a mere once for trespass during a 2015 protest.
"I am open about my actions as I make a stand and am personally responsible for those, but it is not fair and just that others are scrutinized. I am no threat. There is no justification for snooping in private accounts unless you have a reason to do so, and you have the authority to do that," he is reported to have said.
Another was Cat Dorey, an employee and volunteer for Greenpeace since 2001. Likewise, Dorey has no criminal record — and the account was again private, containing only messages to and from family and friends.
"Even though Greenpeace staff, volunteers, and activists were always warned to assume someone was listening to phone conversations or reading emails, it still came as a shock to find out I was being watched by the police. It's creepy to think of strangers reading my personal emails," she said.
The letter's author said they had spoken out about the "serious abuse of power" because over the course of its existence, the unit had evolved into an organization with "little respect for the law and no regard for personal privacy," which encouraged "highly immoral" activity.
The revelations may mean the purview Pitchford Inquiry, established March 2015 to investigate the activities of police spies in activist circles, expands even further. UK police have admitted undercover officers infiltrated at least 460 political groups since 1968.
"Serious concerns" over power of #publicinquiry from women deceived into long-term relationships by #spycops. See: http://t.co/wJGPlmkHgd
— Police Spies Out (@out_of_lives) March 12, 2015
The Inquiry was created following revelations members of the Special Demonstration Squad had stolen the identities of dead children when going undercover, and had engaged in sexual relations with the people they were spying on, to the extent of having children with activists in some cases. It is also investigating claims police undercover agents infiltrated the family and friends of Lawrence, a young man brutally murdered in a racist attack in London in 1993.
#Spycops' bosses tactic of relentless obstructions of legal cases redoubles their original abuse. Shameful. https://t.co/IiQsdE6z5w
— Police Spies Out (@out_of_lives) June 7, 2016
In June 2016, the Inquiry's geographical remit expanded to include Germany — former metropolitan police officer Mark Kennedy has been discovered performing undercover police operations in German cities, including Berlin, where he was arrested for attempted arson.
LJ Pitchford says if evidence emerges of possible criminal offences #undercovercops will be liable for prosecution unless they get immunity
— Danny Shaw (@DannyShawBBC) July 28, 2015
The IPCC has also been investigating claims the police National Domestic Extremism and Disorder Intelligence Unit shredded a large number of potentially incriminating documents about its spying activities in May 2014, announcing February it had uncovered evidence suggesting this was the case despite specific instructions files should be preserved for examination by the Pitchford Inquiry.
The letter specifically referenced the shredding, confirming it had been afoot "for some time…on a far greater scale than the IPCC seems to be aware of." Police officers had destroyed the documents, the author said, as they "reveal officers were engaged in illegal activities to obtain intelligence on protest groups."
In 2015, it was revealed the unit had spied on Green politicians, including the party's sole MP Caroline Lucas.
