Association of Chief Police Officers

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The Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) was a private sector association formed in 1948 of the senior management of the police forces of England , Wales and Northern Ireland . As the last chairman since 2009, he was Chief Constable Sir Hugh Orde ( QPM ). On April 1, 2015, the association was dissolved and the successor organization National Police Chiefs' Council was founded.

Background and story

The British police force is divided into independent and equal regional units, each with its own management structure. Although the Metropolitan Police , based in New Scotland Yard, consider themselves the lead in Great Britain , the individual local police forces are nonetheless independent of one another. In order to develop joint police strategies, the top leaders of the police formed an association in 1948, which was also intended to serve as a link between the Ministry of the Interior and the individual police authorities. In recent years, the association has devoted itself increasingly to the development of strategies to combat terrorism , but also to crime prevention , the preparation of risk analyzes , the development of forensic methods and the optimization of working conditions for civil servants.

The association became known internationally through the case of investigator Mark Kennedy , who worked for the association's National Public Order Intelligence Unit (NPOIU). Kennedy had several sexual relationships in the scene he infiltrated, and he also appeared as an agent provocateur .

Critics accused the association of exerting too much influence on the police officers on the one hand and on politics on the other. Furthermore, the association and its unofficial special units, in contrast to the police authorities, as an organization under private law, were not subject to public control. Since October 2011, however, the association fell under the British Freedom of Information Act and, like official authorities, was obliged to provide information. Furthermore, information from the police databases was sold to interested parties and the construction of the largest person's DNA database with, among other things, genetic fingerprints of more than a million previously not criminally prosecuted people was supervised.

In 2013 there was an independent investigation into the association's activities by the Commander of the British Land Forces, General Sir Nick Parker . Based on its recommendations, the association was dissolved and replaced by a new body, the National Police Chiefs' Council . The new body should fulfill the association's tasks more transparently and also more cost-effectively.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Carsten Volkery: Scandal about V-Mann: London takes undercover cops on the curb. In: Spiegel Online . January 19, 2011, accessed June 10, 2018 .