Events

Guest Speaker: Chris Brian, Undercover Research Group (URG)

Title: 'Spycopsresearch.info: Making Sense of the Undercover Policing Inquiry'

Abstract: This project documents and analyses the “multi-storied” Undercover Policing Inquiry by addressing the fundamental problem of the unreliability of police sources and the sheer volume of material. There are hundreds of stories to be told, and we aim for the stories, both macro and micro, to be accessible to all interested – the spied-upon, academics, lawyers and the general reader. Undercover officers, described by whistleblower Peter Francis as “professional liars”, produced intelligence reports long treated as being from “reliable sources” despite apparent contradictions revealed through civilian testimony and open-source evidence.

The Inquiry spans 43 years, nearly 10,000 published documents, and hundreds of hours of testimony from police, managers, and those subjected to surveillance, making comprehension and cross-analysis extremely challenging. Our website responds by providing a searchable, filterable database of Inquiry disclosure, alongside rigorously edited analytical articles, officer and manager profiles, and contextual overviews of targeted groups. Its analysis section examines operational tradecraft, thematic abuses, and the spycops institutional origins, while a supplementary library adds material absent from the Inquiry disclosure. Together, these tools enable critical navigation of the Inquiry’s vast evidence base and its broader implications for state surveillance, protest policing, and historical accountability. While it gives the ‘big’ picture, it also allows the more personal individual stories to be told.