The National Extremism Tactical Co-ordination Unit (NETCU) was a

British police Law enforcement in the United Kingdom is organised separately in each of the legal systems of the United Kingdom: England and Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland. Most law enforcement is carried out by police officers serving in regional po ...

organisation funded by, and reporting to, the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) that coordinated police action against groups in the United Kingdom it described as extremist.

Structure

As of April 2007, it was headed by Superintendent Steve Pearl.Copping, Jasper
"Animal rights extremists target farmers"
''The Sunday Telegraph'', 14 April 2007. Because the ACPO was not a public body but rather a private limited company, NETCU was exempt from

freedom of information laws Freedom of information laws allow access by the general public to data held by national governments and, where applicable, by state and local governments. The emergence of freedom of information legislation was a response to increasing dissatisfa ...

and other kinds of public

accountability Accountability, in terms of ethics and governance, is equated with answerability, blameworthiness, liability, and the expectation of account-giving. As in an aspect of governance, it has been central to discussions related to problems in the publ ...

, even though they were funded by the Home Office and deployed police officers from regional forces.

Background

"NETCU provides tactical advice and guidance on policing single-issue domestic extremism. The unit also supports companies and other organisations that are the targets of domestic extremism campaigns. NETCU reports through the National Coordinator for Domestic Extremism (NCDE) to the Association of Chief Police Officers Terrorism and Allied Matters - ACPO(TAM) committee." NETCU answered to the Association of Chief Police Officers' (ACPO) Terrorism and Allied Matters Committee, and in particular to ACPO's National Coordinator for Domestic Extremism, Detective Chief Superintendent Adrian Tudway. It worked with the Home Office, and the National Public Order Intelligence Unit. The unit was created in or around May 2004 to coordinate police action in relation to animal rights campaigns. It was based in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, which had been a focal point for animal rights activism as a result of the Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty campaign. Apart from animal rights groups, it also investigated the UK Life League, a

direct action Direct action originated as a political activist term for economic and political acts in which the actors use their power (e.g. economic or physical) to directly reach certain goals of interest, in contrast to those actions that appeal to oth ...

anti-abortion Anti-abortion movements, also self-styled as pro-life or abolitionist movements, are involved in the abortion debate advocating against the practice of abortion and its legality. Many anti-abortion movements began as countermovements in respons ...

group that protests outside abortion clinics.

Takeover by the Metropolitan Police

In November 2010 it was announced that the three ACPO units commanded by the National Domestic Extremism and Disorder Intelligence Unit would be rebranded as the National Domestic Extremism Unit and brought under the control of the

Metropolitan Police The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS), formerly and still commonly known as the Metropolitan Police (and informally as the Met Police, the Met, Scotland Yard, or the Yard), is the territorial police force responsible for law enforcement and ...

by Summer 2011.

Structure

Background

Takeover by the Metropolitan Police

See also

Notes

Further reading