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Calls to disband the Met squad in G20 riots
Kiran Randhawa13.05.09
Officers from the Scotland Yard squad at the centre of controversy over policing of the G20 protests are being investigated over scores of claims of assaulting the public.
Figures obtained by the Standard show the Territorial Support Group was accused of 159 assaults, four of them serious and three of them sexual, in the past year. No officers have been disciplined. Scotland Yard said none of the cases had yet been “substantiated”.
Today there were calls for the 730-strong squad to be disbanded by Met Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson. A total of 283 TSG officers were investigated over 547 allegations of misconduct in the last year. Scotland Yard said 29 per cent related to serious and sexual assault, and other assaults.
A quarter of the allegations made against TSG officers are still being investigated by the Met's Directorate of Professional Standards and the Independent Police Complaints Commission. More than a third are “resolved”, which can mean the complaint being dropped and 40 per cent were after investigation. There were 152 claims of “other assaults”, which includes unjustified force.
Dozens of other allegations include 54 alleged breaches of the rules on stop and search, 50 allegations of “neglect or failure in duty”, 41 counts of discriminatory behaviour and 38 claims that TSG officers were involved in unlawful or unnecessary arrest or detention. The claims were made before the allegations of brutality at the G20 protests last month. One TSG officer has been suspended on suspicion of the manslaughter of newspaper vendor Ian Tomlinson, 47.
Liberty called for the "arrogant and unaccountable force" within the Met to be abolished.
Anna Fairclough, legal officer at Liberty, said: "We have heard too much about the TSG - there is clearly an urgent need to investigate and probably abolish this arrogant and unaccountable force within the force."
Jenny Jones, of the Metropolitan Police Authority and a Green Party member of the London Assembly, said the figures are “exceptionally high” and called for a complete review of the TSG. She said: “It really is time we had a good look at the TSG and removed those causing the trouble. We simply can't carry on with this high level of complaints.”
A Met spokesman said: “It is important to note that, given the nature of the work that TSG carry out on behalf of London, they are often in confrontational policing situations. Only a very small percentage of those complaints are substantiated.”
