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POLICE went against orders and shredded documents that may have been relevant to a public inquiry into undercover policing, a watchdog revealed today.
Members of the Metropolitan Police’s national domestic extremism & disorder intelligence unit destroyed the material in 2014 after the Undercover Policing Inquiry was set up, the Independent Office for Police Conduct said.
A former officer, had they still been serving, would have had a case to answer for gross misconduct over failing to take action after they had been told that the documents may have been shredded.
Helen Steel, one of the many women deceived into a relationship with an undercover officer, told the Star that she was not surprised, as the documents’ destruction was “part of a long pattern of the police deliberately trying to keep secret the extent of secret political policing in this country.”
“The inquiry is doing more to protect the police than to protect the public," she said.
Ms Steel questioned why the investigation took so long and why officers were allowed to retire in the mean time.
She said: “Time and again, officers who have ignored instructions and effectively broken the law are getting away scot-free.
“The police have repeatedly demonstrated that they can’t be trusted, and it is absolutely shocking that they have been allowed to keep control of evidence that could be used to convict them.”
Campaigner Dave Smith said: “This is not a rogue unit. This is the senior echelons of the UK secret state protecting themselves.
“These shady political policing units are a threat to democracy.”
A Met spokesman said that when the undercover policing inquiry was announced, staff were told by email on their internal website and in briefings to retain relevant documents.