by a judge, is necessary to investigate undercover policing and the operation of the sds. today, the interim report said almost all of the sds undercover targets between 1968 and 1982 were unjustified. the report said in the era of the cold war and the troubles, the infiltration of groups which in fact threatened the safety or well being of the state could also have been justified. in the period covered, only three groups penetrated by the sds satisfied these criteria. the great majority of deployments by the sds in this period did not. those deployments, the report found, inevitably required the undercover officer, male orfemale, to befriend members of the target groups and to enter into their personal and political lives. and those actions, mitting concluded, were not a legitimate police tactic in these circumstances. the question is whether or not the end justifies the means.
the public known about its activities. that s the conclusion of a seniorjudge heading the undercover policing inquiry. in his first interim report sirjohn mitting says most of those spied on didn t threaten state security or pose a risk of serious crime as our home affairs correspondentjune kelly reports the vietnam war one of the defining episodes of the 1960s. protests outside the american embassy in london led scotland yard to set up an undercover police unit, the special demonstration squad, to gather information on anti war activists. soon the sds had infiltrated scores of campaign groups. none of it was justified and the sds should have been disbanded early on says the chair of the undercover policing inquiry. today, his words were quoted by those targeted. the question is whether or not the end justifies the means. i have come to the firm
to stop wasting all this money on a failing scheme. it s a year since a plane loaded with migrants and bound for rwanda sat on the runway of an raf base unable to leave after judges intervened. today s ruling means it will be months, if ever, before any similar flight is cleared for take off. mark easton, bbc news. a secret police unit which spied on more than 1,000 political groups and trade union activists over a0 years, should have been disbanded as far back as the 1970s. that s the conclusion of a senior judge heading an inquiry into undercover policing. in his first interim report, sirjohn mitting says most of those people spied on were not a threat to state security, nor did they pose a risk of serious crime. our home affairs correspondent, june kelly, has the story. london, 1968, and it was protests against the vietnam war which led
of the tactics deployed and overseen by the metropolitan police from the 60s onwards delivered its interim report today, and has found that such actions were notjustified, and that the unit, the special demonstration squad, should have been disbanded early on. the chair of the inquiry the former seniorjudge sirjohn mitting said most groups infiltrated by the sds posed no threat and the end did notjustify the means that the unit used. secretary theresa may. theresa may ordered this inquiry in 2014 as home secretary, after a report into the policing of the stephen lawrence murder revealed that the sds had spied on the lawrence family. i don t say this lightly, but i think that the greatest possible scrutiny is now needed into what has taken place. and so, given the gravity of what has now been uncovered, i have decided that a public inquiry, led