#policing — Public Fediverse posts

The #UK government is funding a new National Roads #Policing Coordination Centre (NRPCC) to lead a nationwide crackdown on illegal number plates across #England. Police forces will share intelligence, data and technology to identify offenders and disrupt organised crime groups using the road network.

The NRPCC will trial #technology including specialised goggles designed to detect plates altered to evade cameras. Illegal plates, including cloned, ‘ghost’ and missing plates, can be used to avoid speeding, parking and clean air zone penalties, as well as conceal vehicles involved in serious crime.

Drivers using incorrectly displayed number plates can be fined up to £1,000. The initiative forms part of the government’s new Road Safety Strategy, which aims to improve enforcement and save thousands of lives. The DVSA and DVLA are also working with police to tackle businesses supplying illegal plates and support roadside enforcement.
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/crackdown-on-illegal-number-plates-with-new-government-funded-roads-policing-team

Community crime-fighting volunteers welcome new partnership with Enfield Council

Love Your Doorstep’s community patrol scheme is now receiving backing from the council for the first time since…
#London #Britain #UnitedKingdom #UK #GB #England #Headlines #News #Europe #EU #Enfield #Crime #EnfieldCouncil #EnfieldTown #LoveYourDoorstep #policing #socialenterprise #volunteering
https://www.europesays.com/gbr/london/20684/

https://www.europesays.com/videos/87841/ ‘Kids can’t go to school because of expected DISORDER’ | Middlesbrough schools FORCED to close early #Analysis #BreakingNews #ChildrenSafety #ConservativeParty #conservatives #CrimeInMiddlesbrough #ExpectedDisorder #GBNews #GBNewsLive #GBN #KidsGoingToSchool #MattVickers #Middlesbrough #MiddlesbroughCrime #MiddlesbroughDisorder #news #NewsUpdate #policing #politics #PublicSafety #Reports #SchoolSafety #ShadowPolicingMinister #StreetDisorder #uk #WorldNews

If you are unable to comment on body cameras over Zoom, it is still valuable to send your thoughts to City Council via email.

You can email the City Clerk at
[email protected], and CC the City Council ([email protected]).

#SomervilleMA #policing #surveillance #CallToAction #MAPol

If you are unable to comment on body cameras over Zoom, it is still valuable to send your thoughts to City Council via email.

You can email the City Clerk at
[email protected], and CC the City Council ([email protected]).

#SomervilleMA #policing #surveillance #CallToAction #MAPol

If you are unable to comment on body cameras over Zoom, it is still valuable to send your thoughts to City Council via email.

You can email the City Clerk at
[email protected], and CC the City Council ([email protected]).

#SomervilleMA #policing #surveillance #CallToAction #MAPol

If you are unable to comment on body cameras over Zoom, it is still valuable to send your thoughts to City Council via email.

You can email the City Clerk at
[email protected], and CC the City Council ([email protected]).

#SomervilleMA #policing #surveillance #CallToAction #MAPol

Somerville residents concerned about deployment of police body cameras without civilian oversight, please consider giving public comment at Legislative Matters meeting at 6pm on September 8th:
https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_WRdRHrGRTFC7GZuN1__1VA

To provide comment, register for the Zoom meeting, join the call at 6pm, and when the body cameras hearing begins, raises your hand to request to speak.

#SomervilleMA #policing #surveillance #CallToAction #MAPol

Somerville residents concerned about deployment of police body cameras without civilian oversight, please consider giving public comment at Legislative Matters meeting at 6pm on September 8th:
https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_WRdRHrGRTFC7GZuN1__1VA

To provide comment, register for the Zoom meeting, join the call at 6pm, and when the body cameras hearing begins, raises your hand to request to speak.

#SomervilleMA #policing #surveillance #CallToAction #MAPol

Somerville residents concerned about deployment of police body cameras without civilian oversight, please consider giving public comment at Legislative Matters meeting at 6pm on September 8th:
https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_WRdRHrGRTFC7GZuN1__1VA

To provide comment, register for the Zoom meeting, join the call at 6pm, and when the body cameras hearing begins, raises your hand to request to speak.

#SomervilleMA #policing #surveillance #CallToAction #MAPol

Somerville residents concerned about deployment of police body cameras without civilian oversight, please consider giving public comment at Legislative Matters meeting at 6pm on September 8th:
https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_WRdRHrGRTFC7GZuN1__1VA

To provide comment, register for the Zoom meeting, join the call at 6pm, and when the body cameras hearing begins, raises your hand to request to speak.

#SomervilleMA #policing #surveillance #CallToAction #MAPol

The critical importance of good policy on police body cameras is made extremely clear following recent events in #CambridgeMA. On August 21, the Cambridge Police Department, who already have body cameras, fatally shot 64-year-old William Woodworth near Central Square.

Woodworth's family are fighting hard to get access to the body camera footage, but the District Attorney is insisting that the footage not be released yet.
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2026/08/28/metro/cambridge-body-cam-footage/

#BodyCameras #surveillance #policing #MAPol

Mayor Wilson would like to believe that Somerville residents are enthusiastically supportive of putting body cameras on police regardless of the policy surrounding use of the cameras.

This is why it is important not to let the September 8th hearing pass without significant public turnout, emphasizing that policy matters and that we insist on a civilian oversight body with real authority over the police department.

#SomervilleMA #policing #surveillance #MAPol

It's very frustrating that Somerville is moving forward with an expensive (estimaed $400,000 per year) body cameras program without waiting for the hearing that residents have requested and have a right to.

As a reminder, Mayor Wilson's justification for urgency was that he didn't want to miss out on a quarter million dollar grant to cover the initial purchase, a sum that will be quickly outpaced by the ongoing costs of the program.

#SomervilleMA #surveillance #policing #MAPol

It should be noted that the comments at the July 27th meeting against deployment of police body cameras included several activists who have been advocating for police oversight since 2020. Meanwhile, a large fraction of the comments in favor of cameras were members of the city's own past task forces on policing.

#SomervilleMA #surveillance #policing #MAPol

At the Special Meeting on body cameras that Mayor Wilson called on July 27th, about two thirds of the public comments were in opposition to approval of the policy documents and/or in opposition to initiating an expensive body cameras program at this time.

Nevertheless, the Council voted to approve the policy and to accept the small federal grant for purchase of the cameras (which required that the cameras be purchased by the end of August).

#SomervilleMA #MAPol #surveillance #policing

To give comments on police body cameras in Somerville, please use this link to sign up for the Zoom meeting, and raise your hand to request a chance to speak:
https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_WRdRHrGRTFC7GZuN1__1VA

In particular, it's important to emphasize that a civilian oversight body should exist *before* police body cameras are deployed.

#SomervilleMA #MAPol #policing

There are some important updates on the #SomervilleMA police body cameras situation.

On Tuesday September 8th, the Legislative Matters Committee will be holding the public hearing on body-worn cameras that 89 residents requested by petition. If you're concerned about the issue, it'd be great if you can sign up to give comment.

#surveillance #MAPol #policing

How AI‑powered policing is endangering the public’s trust in police
#Canada #AI #Police #Tech #RCMP #Policing #Surveillance #Privacy #Justice #Justice #AIEthics #Law #PublicTrust
https://the-14.com/how-ai-powered-policing-is-endangering-the-publics-trust-in-police/

How AI‑powered policing is endangering the public’s trust in police
#Canada #AI #Police #Tech #RCMP #Policing #Surveillance #Privacy #Justice #Justice #AIEthics #Law #PublicTrust
https://the-14.com/how-ai-powered-policing-is-endangering-the-publics-trust-in-police/

How AI‑powered policing is endangering the public’s trust in police
#Canada #AI #Police #Tech #RCMP #Policing #Surveillance #Privacy #Justice #Justice #AIEthics #Law #PublicTrust
https://the-14.com/how-ai-powered-policing-is-endangering-the-publics-trust-in-police/

How AI‑powered policing is endangering the public’s trust in police
#Canada #AI #Police #Tech #RCMP #Policing #Surveillance #Privacy #Justice #Justice #AIEthics #Law #PublicTrust
https://the-14.com/how-ai-powered-policing-is-endangering-the-publics-trust-in-police/

How AI‑powered policing is endangering the public’s trust in police
#Canada #AI #Police #Tech #RCMP #Policing #Surveillance #Privacy #Justice #Justice #AIEthics #Law #PublicTrust
https://the-14.com/how-ai-powered-policing-is-endangering-the-publics-trust-in-police/

"In 2023, 60 per cent of Australians rejected a constitutionally recognised Voice for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. A body that could only make representations, only on matters concerning the people whose ancestors have been here sixty thousand years.
"Too much, the No campaign shrieked. Division. Privilege. Special treatment.
"Nine months later, Anthony Albanese handed Jillian Segal what the Voice never dreamed of asking for. Not a right to be heard. Power. No election. No parliamentary vote. No hearing. A three year commission reporting personally to the Prime Minister, with a mandate reaching into every campus, newsroom, classroom, gallery, charity, arts contract and visa file in the Commonwealth."

Andrew Brown writes: https://michaelwest.com.au/the-segal-state-the-office-australia-never-voted-for/

#academicFreedom #influence #lobbying #policing #silencing #genocideSupport #hasbara #grievability #conflation #confusion #manipulation #proZionism #StandWithIsrael #lineOfColor #Australia #RoyalCommission #AusPol #JillianSegal #Segal #AnthonyAlbanese

RE: https://techhub.social/@estelle/116804111381589798

"If the Royal Commission is serious about investigating the nature of antisemitism and its 'key drivers', it should begin with Australia’s Israel lobby – the leading proponents of the conflation of antisemitism with antizionism."
https://www.deepcutnews.com/p/if-the-royal-commission-is-serious?utm_source=substack&publication_id=4434423&post_id=203508596&utm_medium=email&utm_content=share&utm_campaign=email-share&triggerShare=true&isFreemail=false&r=2jzucl&triedRedirect=true

By Louise Adler, former Director of Adelaide Writers’ Week:

#influence #lobbying #policing #respectability #Zionism #silencing #PalestinianLivesMatter #fragility #genocide #JewishSupremacy #hasbara #hasbara #grievability #conflation #confusion #recycling #manipulation #coOpting #proZionism #StandWithIsrael #lineOfColor #Australia #RoyalCommission

Two Nights Outside ICE’s New Jersey Concentration Camp

https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://defector.com/two-nights-outside-ices-new-jersey-concentration-camp

Two Nights Outside ICE’s New Jersey Concentration Camp

https://web.brid.gy/r/https://defector.com/two-nights-outside-ices-new-jersey-concentration-camp

Two Nights Outside ICE’s New Jersey Concentration Camp

https://web.brid.gy/r/https://defector.com/two-nights-outside-ices-new-jersey-concentration-camp

Two Nights Outside ICE’s New Jersey Concentration Camp

https://web.brid.gy/r/https://defector.com/two-nights-outside-ices-new-jersey-concentration-camp

Foreign influence in Australia

"The reach [of the Israel lobby] extends into the newsrooms and it has been there for decades. Veteran ABC journalist John Lyons documented it in his 2021 book Dateline Jerusalem, writing that in forty years of journalism he had never encountered a lobby as formidable, well-funded, or relentlessly effective as the pro-Israel lobby in Australia, and that material the lobby succeeded in suppressing here was routinely published in Israel without consequence or controversy."

Andrew Brown: https://michaelwest.com.au/the-enforcement-the-lobby-that-bought-australian-democracy/

#influence #lobbying #media #policing #respectability #Zionism #silencing #PalestinianLivesMatter #fragility #genocide #JewishSupremacy #hasbara #hasbara #grievability #conflation #confusion #recycling #manipulation #coOpting #proZionism #StandWithIsrael #lineOfColor #Australia #RoyalCommission

"The study found that the reasons given by officers for subjecting black people to the controversial power were more likely to be vague, with examples including that a black person gave a “furtive glance”

#Racism #MetPol #London #Policing #StopAndSearch

Black people up to 48 times more likely to be stopped and searched in richest areas of London | Stop and search | The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/law/2026/mar/10/black-people-up-to-48-times-more-likely-stop-and-search-london-richest-areas

Public Health Experts Sound Alarm as Feds Keep Deploying Tear Gas Near Kids

https://murica.website/2026/02/public-health-experts-sound-alarm-as-feds-keep-deploying-tear-gas-near-kids/

Predictive technology including algorithms and AI is quietly replacing human judgement in under resourced public services such as policing. In Spain these systems are used to assess the safety needs of women fleeing domestic violence. Too often they get it wrong. When automated risk scores replace lived experience and professional care the consequences are not abstract. They are real and sometimes fatal. This video is a stark reminder that technology without accountability can deepen harm rather than prevent it.

#ai #algorithms #publicservices #policing #domesticviolence #techaccountability #spain #humanjudgement

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOjzcHC6RZg

From 2021... This started before #Trump, but things are way worse now!

#AntiProtestLaws Threaten #Indigenous and #Climate Movements

“#CriticalInfrastructure” laws in over a dozen states wrongly invoke national security to justify targeting #PipelineProtesters.

Kaylana Mueller-Hsia, March 17, 2021

"In 2016 as a member of Congress, #DebHaaland stood for four days in solidarity with protesters at the #StandingRockSioux Reservation against construction of the #DakotaAccessPipeline. Today, as the first #NativeAmerican to be the secretary of the interior — the first to lead any cabinet department — she has the opportunity to support the #FirstAmendment rights of the protesters she joined in the past.

"With her authority over energy development on federal lands, Haaland can be a voice for Indigenous and climate movements facing an urgent threat: the rapid spread of laws to protect 'critical infrastructure' that single out activists.

"Since 2016, 13 states have quietly enacted laws that increase criminal penalties for trespassing, damage, and interference with infrastructure sites such as oil refineries and pipelines. At least five more states have already introduced similar legislation this year. These laws draw from national security legislation enacted after 9/11 to protect physical infrastructure considered so 'vital' that the 'incapacity or destruction of such systems and assets would have a debilitating impact on security, national economic security, national public health or safety.'

"Many industry sectors are designated critical infrastructure, including food and agriculture, energy, water and wastewater, and communications, but most state critical infrastructure laws focus more narrowly on oil and gas #pipelines. While protecting critical infrastructure is a legitimate government function, these laws clearly target environmental and Indigenous activists by significantly raising the penalties for participating in or even tangentially supporting pipeline trespassing and property damage, crimes that are already illegal. Many laws are modelled on draft legislation prepared by the American Legislative Exchange Council, also known as #ALEC, a powerful lobbying group funded by #FossilFuel companies like #ExxonMobil and #Shell.

"Central to the new critical infrastructure laws are increased criminal penalties and vague, broad definitions that could discourage protest and particularly, nonviolent civil disobedience. Many laws make any 'damage' to or 'interference' with a facility deemed critical infrastructure a felony. Under #Ohio’s law, trespass with the purpose of 'tampering' with a facility is a third degree felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a $20,000 fine. In Indiana, a felony conviction is applied for any facility trespass, a crime that is typically a misdemeanor or fine.

"Vague language like 'damage,' 'tamper,' and 'impede' in critical infrastructure laws makes it unclear if, for example, knocking down #SafetyCones and starting a fire next to a natural gas facility are the same under the law. Many critical infrastructure laws do not clarify if they apply only to land a company fully owns or also to pipeline easements, which run through both public and private lands. At least some laws apply to both. Only a week after Louisiana’s critical infrastructure law was enacted, opponents of the Bayou Bridge pipeline were charged with trespassing for boating on public waters on the border of a pipeline easement.

"The combination of overly broad language and steep penalties in critical infrastructure laws make it likely that future activists and supporting organizations will be discouraged from exercising their First Amendment-protected protest rights. A lawsuit brought in response to the #BayouBridge charges will test the laws for the first time on First Amendment grounds.

"Many of these laws even extend beyond the protesters. In a proposed law in #Minnesota, anyone who 'recruits, trains, aids, advises, hires, counsels, or conspires' someone to trespass without a 'reasonable effort' to prevent the trespassing is guilty of a gross misdemeanor. In #Oklahoma organizations that conspire with perpetrators are liable to be fined up to $1 million. These laws may infringe on the freedom of association protected under the First Amendment. Indeed, the Supreme Court ruled that the illegal actions of a few individuals do not implicate an entire group.

"The criminalization of environmental protest is fueled by federal security agencies and oil and gas companies, who are often major political donors. For years, the Department of #HomelandSecurity and the Federal Bureau of Investigation have labelled activists at infrastructure sites as #DomesticTerrorists and violent extremists in order to justify further #surveillance and #policing. Government documents have been released that detail the FBI’s focus on '#AnimalRights / #EnvironmentalExtremism,' describing even #NonviolentProtesters as #extremists.

"At Standing Rock, a private security firm [#Blackwater] hired by the pipeline companies consistently referred to protesters as 'terrorists' while working with law enforcement. Ahead of the #KeystoneXLPipeline protests in 2018, #DHS agents held an '#AntiTerrorism training' for state and local authorities. In contrast, members of the #FarRight militant group the #ThreePercenters have established a significant presence at oil and gas plants with little law enforcement reaction.

"To be sure, as the recent power outages in Texas showed so vividly, the United States needs reliable energy. But it’s questionable whether pipeline construction sites that could feasibly be moved or replaced with renewable energy sources should legitimately be considered 'vital' to the energy grid. Furthermore, a singular focus on this aspect of security comes at the cost of others. Whose essential resources do pipeline projects protect and whose do they threaten? Black Americans are disproportionately likely to live near natural #GasPipelines and experience higher #CancerRisk due to unclean air. An oil spill from the Dakota Access Pipeline could devastate the #SiouxTribe’s water source. Meanwhile, on some reservations, 10 percent of households lack electricity and as many as 40 percent of households must haul water and use outhouses. The well-being of these communities must count too.

"The rise in critical infrastructure laws may foreshadow more anti-protest legislation to come. A similar wave of anti-protest laws has already begun in response to the 2020 #BlackLivesMatter protests. State legislators contemplating critical infrastructure laws should bear in mind that laws that criminalize trespassing and protect the safety of construction workers and law enforcement already exist. Critical infrastructure laws don’t fill an unmet need — they only raise the penalties for specific groups of people. Courts adjudicating #FirstAmendment challenges in the coming years should recognize that these laws are overbroad and impose disproportionately severe penalties that chill freedom of assembly and association.

"As secretary of the interior, Haaland promises to uplift the voices of Indigenous and climate protesters in the Biden administration. State legislators, law enforcement, and the fossil fuel industry should follow suit and listen to these activists rather than suppressing constitutionally protected activity under the guise of national security."

Source:
https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/anti-protest-laws-threaten-indigenous-and-climate-movements

#BrennanCenter #Authoritarianism #Fascism #NoDAPL #NoKXL #PipelineProtests #WaterIsLife #ACAB #ErikPrince #BigOilAndGas #Oiligarchy #CorporateColonialism #EnvironmentalRacism #WaterIsLife #AirIsLife #ExxonLied #Blackwater #StandWithStandingRock #StandingRockSioux

Vehicle pursuits and the resulting "bailouts" played a major role in school officials' and law enforcement's response to the 2022 Robb Elementary school shooting. It leaves lasting consequences.

https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/news/texas/2025/05/20/521783/high-speed-chases-added-to-uvalde-shooting-chaos-chases-are-down-3-years-later-but-trauma-remains/

#CriminalJustice #Immigration #News #Texas #CarChases #DeadlyPursuits #OperationLoneStar #PoliceOfficers #Policing #TexasBorder #TexasDepartmentOfPublicSafety #USCustomsAndBorderProtection #Uvalde #UvaldeShooting

Hisham Matar: "Acrobatics […] so as not to name the crimes for what they are, but name some of them, so as to have named something"

Kate Greenberg: https://vashtimedia.com/translation-of-solidarity-amsterdam/ 🧶

#discrimination #moralBeauty #liberals #policing #respectability #Zionism #JewishState #israelism #Maccabi #TelAviv #MaccabiTelAviv #NL #Netherlands #Amsterdam #UK #silencing #PalestinianLivesMatter #fragility #warOnGaza #GazaWar #IsraelHamas #genocide #ethnicCleansing #October7 #JewishSupremacy #supremacy #VashtiMedia #Vashti #hasbara #hasbarah #grievability #racism #islamophobia #community #solidarity #conflation #confusion #antisemitism #antiZionism #politics #recycling #manipulation #coOpting #coloniality #proZionism #StandWithIsrael #lineOfColor #raceMaking

#JeffSessions later effectively banned federal prosecutors from using #consent decrees in #policing or other investigations, saying their “wide-ranging & long-term obligations” improperly overrode local control.

Gunston, who left the #DOJ in 2018, said she considered Sessions’s move “a complete abdication of our responsibility.”

The #Obama admin entered into 15 consent decrees w/ local #police depts.

#law #justice #HarrisWalz2024

"UK ministers must “adopt comprehensive measures to discourage and combat racist hate speech and xenophobic discourse by political and public figures” and ensure that such cases are “effectively investigated and sanctioned”, the #UN committee on the elimination of racial discrimination recommended in a report."

#UKpolitics #FarRight #Xenophobia #Racism #Policing #Profiling #StopAndSearch #StripSearch

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/article/2024/aug/23/un-urges-uk-to-tackle-rise-in-racist-hate-speech-by-politicans-and-public-figures

The #gardenisle has the #UK's highest charge for #gardenwaste collection (& they #compost it & sell it for #profit). The #policeforce was combined with a #mainland force with different priorities and a #ferry journey away. If you call the #police now they'll have no idea about the quirky island locations, the nature of the #roads etc. Now the #policeprecept has been increased. Will there be more #officers the for #island or just for ##Hampshire?
#policing #IsleofWight
https://onthewight.com/policing-precept-hike-approved-despite-concerns-over-cost-of-living-crisis/

Miami’s top cop tried to commit suicide. Mental health remains an issue for first responders :

The biggest threat to law enforcement officers --and often, their families-- is not any armed criminal. It is themselves.
#AlEskanazy #AlfredoFreddyRamirez #carlosalvarez #CommunityPoliceRelationsFoundation #COVID19 #DanielaLevineCava #DaniellaLevineCava #Domesticabuse #FirstResponder #gunviolence #mentalhealth #MiamiDadeCounty #Police #policing #RobertParker #str

https://kbindependent.org/?p=10377

Who is attracted to #policing jobs?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yxt_foRCN7k
Brian Klaas argues that the key to #police #reform is changing who wants to be a #cop.
Could revamping police #recruitment strategies pave the way to a more accountable and community-oriented #policeforce?
#policestate #policebrutality #murder

Operation Hummer I Nord: the thread about a bumbling German espionage attempt, stopped in its tracks at Waverley

Scene. Edinburgh Waverley, 9PM, Sept. 30 1940. A man lingers in the shadows by a bookstall, a hand in his pocket. He watches the left luggage counter, waiting anxiously. He steps forward and in the same instant is caught in a vice-like grip. For Werner Walti, the war is over.

The porter who has accosted him propels him into the luggage office, at the same time twisting the arm from the pocket to reveal a Mauser pistol. The man cries out, “I am not German, I am Swiss!” Fourteen hours previously, a cold and wet Werner Walti appeared out of the morning darkness at the tiny Buckpool Station on Scotland’s Moray coast, clutching a two damp cases. In a foreign accent he enquired where he was (the station signs had been removed), and when the next train to Aberdeen was.

On finding out he had just missed it, he was directed to Buckie Station, a mile up the line, where he could catch the 9:58 to Aberdeen. He was told to take the bus, but tried to buy his 2d fair with a 10/- note and the clippie could not give him change. At 07:45 he presents himself at Buckie station and purchases a ticket via Aberdeen to Edinburgh. With 2 hours to wait, he occupies himself staring at the timetables in minute detail. “Have you lost a train sir?” enquires the porter. Flustered, he shows his ticket and leaves.

At that same time, a few miles to the west in Port Gordon, PC Robert Grieve – irked at being awakened from his bed so early in the morning – is on the telephone to his superior at Buckie to break the news: He has two German spies in his custody!

The suspicions of John Donald, stationmaster at Port Gordon, were aroused when two bedraggled foreigners arrived at his station first thing that morning and asked where they were. Checking a map, they bought 2 tickets to Forres. John Donald noticed the wad of notes they paid from. John Donald’s suspicious were further aroused as they were very wet below the knees, their clothes stained white with salt. Alarm bells really rang for Donald when one of the pair pulled a large sausage from his pocket and began cutting and eating slices from it with a knife. He sent for PC Grieve who promptly arrived to inspect papers. The couple, a man and a woman, presented refugee identity cards. But Grieve was not satisfied; why were the cards not stamped? Why were they completed in European style handwriting with the 7s crossed through? Inspector Simpson is sent for from Buckie and arrives to search the suspects. He noted the identity cards were numbered consecutively. He noted the 19 rounds of pistol ammunition; £327 in bank notes; a list of RAF bases; a torch marked “Made in Bohemia“; and a German sausage.

Forcing open the couple’s suitcase, Simpson finds a loaded Mauser pistol, a morse radio set and encoding wheels. Francois de Deeker and Vera Erikson – as their papers identify them – are placed under arrest, and the Inspector phones his superiors, who phone their superiors. Far off in Edinburgh, Peter Perfect’s telephone soon rang. It was Banffshire Constabulary and after a brief conversation he jumped into his car and set off at once for Buckie, a 5.5 hour drive away. Peter Perfect was not just a great name, he was MI5’s top man in Scotland. A few hours later, Peter Perfect is on the road and Werner Walti, newly arrived in Aberdeen, boards the Edinburgh train. Back in Banffshire, coastguards on the beach between Port Gordon and Buckie are hauling ashore a rubber raft, near where the Gollachy Burn enters Spey Bay.

Peter Perfect arrives in Buckie to be presented with the raft, and with Vera Erikson now claiming to be Vera de Cottain Chalbur, that her companion is a German agent that she is to guide to London, and that if Perfect will only phone Captain King in London, he will vouch for her.

Vera also reveals that there’s another spy on the loose in northern Scotland! A search of the shore turns up his foreign-made rubber boots. A full-blown spy hunt swings in to operation. It’s not long before staff at Buckpool and Buckie station are telling of their curious passenger “Which way did he go?” To Aberdeen. The phone wires buzz once more and soon the Police in that city question the station staff there. Yes, a man answering that description got off the late-running 1004 from Buckie and yes, he joined the lunchtime express to Edinburgh. He doesn’t know it yet, but the noose is silently tightening around Werner Walti’s neck. But for now he is free, and on arriving at Waverley he leaves his suitcase at left luggage and heads off into the city. 40 minutes later, the telephone rings at Police HQ in Edinburgh.

It is now 10 past 5 in the evening, and Detective Superintendent William Merrilees, head of CID, is furious that he is only just finding out now that he has a spy on the loose in his city. Every spare man is at once sent out to make enquiries, Merrilees himself heads to Waverley station.

Merrilees is a policeman with a fearsome reputation. A former shipyard worker, “Wee Willie” is comically short, missing the fingers on his left hand and is completely fearless. A one-time prize boxer, with a “fist like a stone mallet”, he strikes first and asks questions later. He is patient in a stakeout and a master of disguise, having honed his skills in the city’s vice squad tackling “shebeening”, street prostitution, flashers and high class brothels. He also waged an uncompromising, self-declared one-man “war on homosexuality” in the city.

At Waverley, the police quickly track down Walti’s suitcase, it is damn, and has traces of sand and salt on it. A board attendant is found who had carried it there for a passenger – a porter’s job – in the hope of a tip, and describes the owner as matching the man at Buckie. Merrilees wastes no more time and forces the case open to reveal a wireless transmitter. That is all the evidence he needs, and he fills the station with plainclothes officers, pairing them up with WVS women so that they look less conspicuous.

He himself finds a suitably short railway porter – Thomas Ferguson – and borrows his uniform. He and the board attendant – Thomas Cameron, aged 17 -take up position near the left luggage counter and wait. And wait. And wait, for three long hours.

A few minutes before 9PM, a hesitant Werner Walti starts down Waverley Steps towards the station. He has wandered the cold, damp city for hours, blending in with the crowds. He has looked in the windows of numerous restaurants, and although he is hungry he feels too sick to eat.

In the station, Walti lingers near the left luggage office for a few minutes. Is that porter looking at him? He spots the board attendant who had helped him earlier that day and – piqued with a temporary confidence – he strides up to the desk to reclaim his suitcase.

As he does so, it is no porter who accosts him, it is “Wee Willie” Merilees, who is quickly joined by fellow detectives of the Edinburgh Police: Detective Lieutenant Cormack, Detective Inspector Sutherland and Detective Sergeant Swan. Thinking they have disarmed their suspect, they turn their attention to his possessions, held in a small briefcase; Walti has other ideas and pulls a concealed knife on his captors, but he is quickly disarmed by Constable McCowan and Reservist Fair. With the suspect now properly restrained, they turn back to his briefcase and possessions. Every item is more incriminating than the rest. There is more pistol ammunition; £190 in Bank if England Notes; a British ID card; a forged Swiss passport with no immigration stamps.

There is a compass; various pills; 11 maps of Scotland and England, marking “Flugplatz” (airfields) and overprinted with Luftwaffe target grids. There are code books and there is a sheaf of graph paper marked the property of the Commanding Officer of the Luftwaffe in Norway!

Walti and his “My First German Spy Kit” are bundled into the nearest vehicle – an Ambulance – and taken to Police Headquarters. Before it had ever got going, Operation Brummer 1 Nord has been nipped in the bud by the Railwaymen of Banffshire and the Scottish Polis. So who were these three damp, unhappy individuals who appeared to have washed up on the north coast of Scotland without a clue and without a hope? And how did they come to be there? Winding the clock back 24hrs and crossing the North Sea to Stavanger in occupied Norway, 3 individuals, Robert Petter (AKA Werner Walti), Karl Drücke (AKA Francois de Deeker) and Vera Schalburg (AKA Vera Ericson) climb the ladder from a small boat into a Luftwaffe He 115 seaplane

Things were already not going well. The weather has put them a few days behind schedule and all are sore; last night the car they were in crashed and their companion and leader – Abwehr agent Capt. Hans Dierks lies dead on a Norwegian mortuary slab as a result. A few hours later and a few hundred miles across the North Sea, they clamber into their inflatable boat on the dark, choppy waters of Spey Bay. 3 bicycles follow from the plane and – threatening to swap the dinghy – are promptly tossed overboard, as the seaplane takes off for Norway

They are dropped near the coast, but with only folding paddles and working against the wind and currents it takes them four hours to get near enough to the shore to wade onto the beach, wet and bedraggled and with no bicycles and no clue where they are. Shivering on the beach, they share a quick snack of apples and some German sausage and decide to split up on foot and find railway stations. Walti heads east for Buckpool; de Deeker and Ericson head west for Port Gordon.

Less than 24 hours later, all three find themselves reunited in unfortunate circumstances at Edinburgh Police HQ, about to head south under armed guard to face Lt. Col. W. Edward Hinchley-Cooke, the German-educated top interrogator of the British Secret Service.

In London, shortly thereafter, the printing presses of the “Daily Herald” will clatter into action and print a front-page story that will ultimately seal the fate of two of the three agents. They are the only paper to print it, and they never should have.

Under interrogation, de Deeker (Drücke) gives up little. It’s not that he is a master at resisting Hinchley-Cooke’s inquisition, it’s just that he has very little to tell. Walti is similarly uncooperative, but eventually gives a statement in German to confirm how he arrived.

One interesting fact that Hinchley-Cooke extracts from Walti is the codeword he was to give his handler in London – “I am coming from Glasgow”. Walti can have no idea that his handler was SNOW, a chain-smoking Welsh Nationalist and a British double agent. Vera Erikson, aka de Cottain Chalbur, aka Schalburg on the other hand is talking for her life. The Captain King that she asked Peter Perfect to contact is none other than Max Knight, head of MI5’s counter-subversion division. Max Knight is none other than they legendary “M”. Before the war, Vera – a Russian exile – had worked in a Mayfair hairdressers and had been on the payroll of “M”, passing on low-grade society gossip picked up during her work. She is of little real intelligence value, but is desperate to save her neck and agrees to cooperate.

A secret memo soon seals the fate of Walti. As the press has already blown his existence, and as he is uncooperative and possibly suicidal, it is decided to make an example of him and hand him over to Capt. Hancock-Nunn, for prosecution under the Treachery Act, 1940.

de Deeker is even less helpful than Walti and is given the same fate. Both are sent to the ominous sounding Camp 020 to await trial. They say little at Bow Street Magistrate’s Court when they are charged; without legal representation and understanding little of what was happening. In June 1941, both are tried by jury infront of Justice Cyril Asquith. Both enter a plea of not guilty. The trial is paused for a day as both Asquith and the Solicitor General are unhappy that neither man have legal representation, and agree they should have it.

The court agrees to pay for barristers for each man out of the reams of notes confiscated off of them by the Scottish police – currently sitting amongst the exhibits in that very court room. Walti will be represented by J. C. Whitebrook. An attempt at a fair trial is made – but neither defendant helps themselves and both repeatedly contradict and perjure themselves, perhaps due to their lack of comprehension of the language and what is actually happening. On June 16th 1941, both are found guilty. Appeals fail. A simple note inserted in Walti’s file records his fate. de Deeker suffers the same. The hangman is Albert Pierrepoint, who will hang 15 German spies during the war and post-war, Lord Haw-Haw and 226 Nazi war-criminals

Vera Schalburg saves herself by talking freely and readily agrees to be “turned”, thus becomes a double-agent. She is sent into internment on the Isle of Man to spy on her fellow captives. Here she will contract pneumonia, from which she will die after the war in Hamburg aged 31.

In 1942, the Edinburgh Evening News is given permission to print 3 simple paragraphs referring to the fate of Werner Walti. His file in the National Archive records that repeated requests by the paper to run the full story are turned down by MI5, well into the 1950s.

The Operation Brummer missions were an unmitigated, amateurish failure. As is Operation Lena – the overarching German mission to insert agents into Britain. Operation Sealion, the invasion for which they are meant to gather intelligence, will never take place.

Abwehr’s bumbling spying attempts against Britain were a complete disaster. Every single agent they sent was captured and either executed or turned under the Double-Cross System, which did untold, irreparable damage to the Nazi war effort.

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👏 #OpenData in reports on #Policing, #StopSearch, and community impact for the year to March 2022 @IGCP_UCL, @LessCrime #library

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RT @LessCrime
Our updated @IGCP_UCL analysis of #StopAndSearch in London covers the year to March 2022 and shows the annual number of searches falling by 33% to 215,400.

#StopSearch Report: http://lesscrime.info/publication/stop-and-search-london-2022-q1/
https://twitter.com/LessCrime/status/1534949826961473536

#Documents obtained by #TheTyee that $36 million, about 15%, is going to the #RCMP #CIRG . Unit is responsible for #policing #ResourceIndustry #conflicts - #pipeline #disputes & #OldGrowth #logging #protests . Currently under #investigation by #CRCC - over #misconduct allegations.
RCMP declined to make anyone available for an interview.
https://thetyee.ca/News/2023/03/17/Where-Will-RCMP-Spend-Money-For-Rural-Policing

#CriminalCops #ThinBlueSkin #CorporateMercenaries #SystematicRacism #Canada #BritishColumbia #BadgedCriminals #NoIntegrity #NoHonour