Undercover Police

[barry1010]

Is that the right term? I don't mean plain clothes police officers but those that adopt another identity and infiltrate criminal gangs. This is something else that I have wondered about for a long time. How is their pay calculated? They are effectively working 24/7 for months at a time, can't go home, live in a dangerous environment. They stress levels must be through the roof.

[aelmpvw]

i can only imagine that it is devotion to duty

[dannyk13]

Have you been watching American crime shows? It doesn't work like that in the UK.Any undercover work usually only lasts for a short period.

[andy-hughes]

i would imagine it takes a very specific personality - one that is able to subsume who he or she is, and adopt a character with such depth and conviction that it convinces the dangerous people they then have to mix with.

The pressure must indeed be enourmous, but dealing with it is part of the personality that can undertake this kind of work.

[Ellipsis]

dannyk, see:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Public_Order_Intelligence_Unit

which came after this ...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_Demonstration_Squad

[woofgang]

I would invert that and say that doing that kind of work may keep some people on the straight and narrow who would otherwise seek more dangerous less useful ways of life.

[douglas9401]

Maybe criminal masterminds aren't as bright as advertised.

[woofgang]

douglas, the ones who get caught aren't.....

[barry1010]

danny, I read a biography of a UK undercover police officer who was in the role for 10 months.
I haven't watched a US cop series since Starsky and Hutch, I watch very little American tv or films

[gulliver1]

You are correct Barry it does happen in UK , a colleague of mine went undercover for seven months , he was a single person so being cut of from family was not really a big problem. But was very happy when it was all over, and a good result was obtained.

[Ellipsis]

Here's a couple of examples:

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Lambert_(undercover_police_officer)
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Kennedy_(police_officer)

[tiggerblue10]

Have you seen Line of Duty, series 5, Barry?

[dannyk13]

ellipsis, that is a private company.

[Spicerack]

They often seem to incite and facilitate the crimes in the US.
Not saying the other 'gang' members are choirboys but it ain't really cricket, is it?

[Ellipsis]

Is it, danny? "In November 2010 it was announced that the three ACPO units commanded by the National Coordinator for Domestic Extremism would be rebranded as the National Domestic Extremism Unit and brought under the control of the Metropolitan Police Business Group by mid-2011."

[barry1010]

ellipsis, a private company that deploys police officers.

[Ellipsis]

It's a tangled web. Any private elements are likely to be to avoid "public accountability, including freedom of information laws". But I don't think it's as private as you think.

[Peter Pedant]

// i can only imagine that it is devotion to duty//

is this a wind up? they also cheer themselves up by making babies with the women they are spying on ! phew that is OK then

then hey disappear or er go back to their wives and then what happens?

the police refuse to being up / help bring up the kids - the women sue and there is a public enquiry....

you wondered long and deeply and never heard of this !

and it is all here

https://www.ucpi.org.uk/

bar bar says in wonder - well I never did !

[Peter Pedant]

phew ellipsis HAD heard of it
and the rest just pretended !

oh boys you are such wags on a saturday am - rugby soon !
but not the french - they have been kissing each other - dirty little sads !

[Peter Pedant]

anyone following the foo-foo in scofland?
Salmond complaining about missing documents ?
WELL --- I dont want to tell stories..... BUT

2008 ding ding - SDS is told for the second or third time that the rules have changed and they really have to stop er screwing around

and the nobs ( for that is what they are) says - right you are all on traffic point duty. and someone says - - ( see above ) let us destroy all our docs so no one can inquire latter what he did and where....
and it is good bye SDS

but there are SO many piccanins running around after chief constables shouting daddy daddy

that they decide to spend £100m not on the kids but on lawyers and an inquiry to see for example if these kids really ARE policemens chidlren. They are

But no one knows screwed whom coz all the records are destroyed

and a clerk said - - I didnt ! - - didnt destroy my hard ( hur hur hur) drive and here it is ! It was so odd he says to hear an order to destroy records that I thought it must be wrong so I didnt

and the inquiry goes on !
goes arn and arn and arn ( wowser! ) Gig Young They Shoot Horses Dont They 1967.

when ABers exclaim - foo what dat den? foo what Undercover policing inquiry what dat den x 1000
you are all joking arent you? just a wind up ?

[Spicerack]

You surely don't expect everyone to be as brilliant as you, pp?
You really shouldn't keep confronting us with our shortcomings. Some people are sensitive about such trifles.
Besides, you might accidentally carry on like that in public one day. Then where you going to be....