Prosecutors are currently examining whether to bring criminal charges against 12 former police officers involved in spying on political groups. The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) is reviewing a file of evidence concerning potential wrongdoing during controversial undercover operations.
The consideration of charges, which may include misconduct in public office, follows a police investigation into Mark Kennedy. Kennedy was an undercover officer who infiltrated environmental and left-wing groups for six years, deceiving women into intimate relationships while concealing his identity as a police spy.
Kennedy was one of 139 undercover officers who monitored tens of thousands of activists between 1968 and at least 2010. If the CPS proceeds with a prosecution, it would mark the first instance of officers from these operations being criminally charged for unauthorised misconduct.