Undercover Policing

It was at Oxford David Cornwall was asked by the Government if he would pretend to be left wing and spy on his fellow students, as he had done before when a student at the university in Berne. The Official History of MI5 has confirmed the approach of infiltrating left of centre organisations and spying on politicians and trade union activists which was given fresh impetus by the Cold War which developed after armistice 1945. 

A very interesting and informative insight into the one aspect of the work of the Infiltration department of the Metropolitan Police is provided in Undercover published by Century a branch of Random House, (a building where I worked on leaving school in 1955 as an office junior in a branch of the Middlesex County Council Finance Department and which is located close the Vauxhall Bridge with at the other end the iconic HQ building of MI6). Undercover provides one perspective on the way British law enforcement attempted to encounter the development of international crime which as previously mentioned matched the development of international finance and general business which commenced to be executed in the 1980’s to bypass the controls and sanctions of individual states and their government whatever their political systems.

The book also provides insight into many of the same issues in the  authorized biography of  David Cornwall/John Le Carré so it is an appropriate point to break from his story to first consider the world of Joe Carter, who as a new young recruit to the police in London became bored and jumped at the opportunity to first undertake undercover work in addition to normal duties after recruitment to the Criminal Investigations department, and then became full time, whereas in the instance of David Cornwall he quickly became an international literary superstar, although it is not clear me when he fully moved from the day to day reality into the world of fiction or the extent  to which he  ever moved from a  kind of non-fiction reporting into full creative fiction, including using for a time one former service boss to undertake fact checking for his literary works.

There are several ways to view Joe Carter’s book the book which in the first part provides insight into the workings of the police and the ways of policemen and then on the life and implications of spending a year living with someone of the  opposite sex undercover officer away from his own family, and overall the  book can be regarded as an apology to his family, and also to some of the criminals he befriended, and where at times it can be said he enticed into undertaking more specific wrongdoing and which in turn leads to questions of means justifying the ends, and  as a declared on commencing the  overall writing, I  believe is justified in specific circumstances involving national security and crime detection.

The present Prime Minister, when Home Secretary, established an independent statutory inquiry into undercover policing at the same time as the Inquiry into past crime against children involving national institutions and other  national bodies was converted into a statutory Inquiry because of issues arising from the infiltration of organisations  which might pose a threat to the state but which are not involved in criminal activity  such as a political party, a trade union,  a protest or pressure group, including those challenging aspects of police work.

As a new young recruit, Joe Carter found the assigned duties at the London Chiswick station not what he had hoped for and he found himself under scrutiny because of his failure to meet the expected quota of traffic and other minor offences to keep management content. He was saved by a helping old hand from the Criminal Investigations Department (C.I.D) and jumped at the opportunity of moving out of uniform although he admits he decided not to join Freemasonry which he alleges controlled the CID at that time. He also paints a vivid picture of the drink culture which started from a cabinet in the office and continued across the way at a local public house. One senior officer started at lunch time and was known to regularly consume eight to ten pints.

Joe is also honest that what attracted him to undercover work was the excitement and this included the challenges and the personal risks involved. At first the work was in addition to the day job and one assume overtime rates were paid and having gained promotion, a wife and a child and moving to an area distant from both sets of grandparents, his wife was left alone and in the dark about his double work so that when the opportunity to become full time undercover he lied about family support, such was the attraction of the role for him. He admits to feeling guilt especially when the undercover work involved a week away from day job responsibilities and family.  He admits that the responsibilities of bringing up children as in effect a single parent were demanding and more challenging than his and gives the impression that his wife was or became content with her role.

He then describes the first adventure on the shores of Europe, using the recently opened channel tunnel and filling the car with duty free drink where the focus was on a group of professional criminals responsible for the production and distribution of Ecstasy tablets in Europe. The task involved several trips to Holland and to Spain where those involved were older men with legitimate businesses but who appeared able to spend their day drinking and womanizing. On the visit to Spain they were taken to be entertained at a brothel by very young girls with one allocated to him Asian and very petite. It was one the criminal associates which pressed for a way out and in helping him Joe broke one of the golden rules when working with a colleague, don’t leave that person on their own. The experience reveals something of the challenges facing those who are required to adopt the life style of the professional underworld.

The book then covers his recruitment as a full time officer in days when this appears to have been done by word of  mouth on the  basis of previous contact  and reputation rather than an open competitive and rigorous process over a period of time which is presently being described in a Channel Four documentary series Spies  covering the four weeks of assessment, reminding of the four week residential experience at an International for existing director level candidates seeking to become general managers such as chief executives undertaken in the mid 1980’s and where beforehand there  had been thorough background and personality profiling. 

He also gives a vivid account of the end of the year Christmas social function which used to take place in most work centres where everyone gets drunk over lunch time or from late afternoon into evening and where pent up passions become freed and which can turn into violent and sexual interactions with immediate and longer devastating impact. Before beginning his work as part of the Infiltration Unit he recounts his experience of an activity in Northern Ireland which involved buying a quantity of drugs in a situation where the trade was controlled with guns and paramilitary power. He makes the powerful point that whereas he could function in situations involving professional criminals who used physical violence instinctively as well as calculated the experience in what had become a tribal totalitarian war was on a different level of horror, nastiness and personal insecurity. The reality was made clear when in a bar full of Protestant colleagues in the local force drinking hard at lunch all part of his protection team which included armed protection he was told in the loo that he would in fact be on his own because he was known to be a catholic. The source remains unidentified.

In the same era, I attended a conference on the prevention of drug misuse in Dublin on behalf of an association of chief officers in local government and organised by the British and Irish governments. Such a shadowy figure sat with me at dinner but I listened to what he had to say and listened to what was said at the conference while otherwise keeping a low profile.

At  a social function attended by fellow Directors of Social Services and Councillors, but I cannot remember when,  I was approached in the loo by a colleague who I had never met  before who introduced himself and said you are a left footer (which I had been  as a child  but was no longer) and I then worked in  an area of Tyneside where at one point  leaflets were circulating advising voters to only support Fenian Labour candidates, an area where there used to be an annual Orange march and the Order still shares a building with the Tory Protestant and Unionist Club. Yesterday while on a search for a business I drove past the Mosque in South Shields, when Mohamed Ali had a marriage ceremony in the same month that the Queen visited during her Silver Jubilee year. I noted for the first time in the forty years that I have worked and more recently lived in the town the existence of another Unionist club.

It is, of course, all a matter of degree of threat, and separately I will be writing about published material on the crime families which engaged in a bloody civil war on Tyne and Wearside over control, and where family honour and integrity governed as anywhere. In the first reported assignment, Joe Carter enters the world of Albanian Drug suppliers where he warned that any form of treachery would be dealt with by the family and generationally if necessary. There is then disclosure of the impact of such roles on individuals and the need to have someone independent skilled and in listening, supporting but also the limitations of this and importance of building up survival self-reliance and where I suggest  that while selection and assessment are important, those responsible for recruitment have to put the interests of the state first and that casualties are inevitability, My approach, in the world I inhabited, has always been to ensure that I was always frank about risks  and likely consequences and that if I was asking someone else to go over the top, the individual knew that  I was also leading from the front and taken the main burden of risk. The author the tells how he told his son aged sixteen what he did and his son’s relief as a friend had suggested that his dad was not a detective but had all the appearance of being a drug dealer which is what became for a whole year at one point.

The book then moves onto a subject which has become one of the reasons the independent statutory inquiry into undercover policing has been established- the extent which such individuals are required or develop sexual attachments which lead to the creation of second marriages and families, and in this instance to become the partner of another female undercover officer who worked alone in a challenging environment and where a criminal boyfriend which provide both security and progress the project. It is having this point there is need to introduce a reality warning that clearly anyone writing about such experience will have had the work vetted to ensure ongoing service methods are not compromised and that the anonymity of the actual work and convictions cannot be compromised.

I am reminded of my unsuccessful career as an office equipment salesman for a major international company where working in central London in the city we had to start work calling at offices up to 5 business machines then graduated to those up to 25 and over this a small group attempted to gain contracts with the larger firms. Thus, our undercover officer was involved in the purchase of a kilo or two of cocaine and therefore in the middle of the chain.  However, sums of £25000 in cash were required for trading and the flash lifestyle required involved expenses to purchase the latest fast car, fashionwear, tip doormen £50 or £100 to get space and be looked after and to buy champagne with a little discount for getting ready for drinking half a dozen. In terms of the main operation recounted there was talk of making a million within the year, which understandably could make some question if they were in the wrong job.

Because of his abilities and success, he became a leader of others, a trainer and an internationally appreciated expert. Feeling myself to be different, from early childhood I have always been interested in how others lived whether, teenagers, couples, parents and now other oldies, and for a time considered most people normal until through my work I understood that everyone feels that way at some point and experiences situations and challenges for which they are not equipped and find themselves tested after which lives can be traumatised with long term damage and in some instance destroyed. The most significant aspect of the book comes at the end when having recounted what his life was about and the impact it had on his family, he attends the funeral of a colleague who worked undercover in the attempt to stop and apprehend paedophiles. I have no time for those, especially the politicians who bear down hard on the individuals who cross the line when working for and in the interests of state or make mistakes which adversely affect the bystander, while government, parliament  and other state institutions work with and tolerate those who now make billions exploiting and destroying people in their thousands and tens of thousands and as we daily see in places such as Syria and Aden,  and a few make billions from millions.

The story of Joe Carter is important because I suggest it shows  great insight into the reality of the ordinary men and women who join the police or enlist in the armed services and are recruited to serve their country by doing  unconventional work  behind the scenes working with those only interested in developing their own power and wealth  by any means without disregard for the harm which they do, using  people, destroying the lives of others and this includes their families.  There is no justification for tolerating these people and while it is often true that if you take down one crime boss or crew leader others are only too ready to stem in it is essential the state does focus on stopping a s many as possible while at the same time also looking at ways to prevent individuals being drawn into this cycle of evil.

There are many similarities between Joe and David Cornwall although the direction in which their lives has taken are taken in terms of legacy appears to be very different although the individual good they did is likely to remain secret and they both must spend the rest of their lives living with the unintended consequences.  This is where David Cornwall has been able to work off his occupational life through his fictional writings and to have an authorised version of life which attempts to indicate something of how life and work may have become entwined.