Yet more controversy over the police’s handling of protests:

Government officials passed secret police intelligence to energy firm E.ON before last summer’s environmental demonstration at Kingsnorth in Kent.

Environmental action group Climate Camp had planned a peaceful demonstration at the proposed site of a new coal-fired power station.

Emails obtained by Liberal Democrat MP David Howarth under the Freedom of Information Act show that civil servants from the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform gave details of meetings and activists’ movements to E.ON.

From the Guardian:

At first officials at BERR refused to release the emails, despite a request under the Freedom of Information Act from the Liberal Democrats. The decision was reversed on appeal and although large sections have been blacked out, they show:

• BERR officials passed a strategy document belonging to the “environmental protest community” to E.ON, saying: “If you haven’t seen this then you will be interested in its contents.”

• Government officials forwarded a Metropolitan police intelligence document to E.ON, detailing the movements and whereabouts of climate protesters in the run-up to demonstration.

• E.ON passed its planning strategy for the protest to the department’s civil servants, adding: “Contact numbers will follow.”

• BERR and E.ON tried to share information about their media strategies before the protest, and civil servants asked the energy company for press contacts for EDF, BP and Kent police.

David Howarth said, “It is as though BERR was treating the police as an extension of E.ON’s private security operation. The question is how did that intelligence get to BERR? Did it come via the Home Office or straight from police?”

Some people’s taste in music can be pretty bad, but criminal??

A jazz musician in Wales was arrested by armed police as part of a major anti-terror raid. Victor Frederick had been aware of police surveillance days before his arrest.

From WalesOnline, via Cory Doctorow on Boing Boing:

Victor Frederick, 63, was arrested and strip-searched just yards from his home, just moments after his partner Andrea Heath and their daughter had infra-red sights trained at them and were told they would be shot if they moved.

No charges were ever brought against Mr Frederick…[who told how] police interpreted soundproofing equipment and wiring from his musical studio as a potential sign of illicit activity.

Mr Frederick was informed he was being arrested on suspicion of making explosives, but later during questioning, police told him they had found nothing.

Police have found a new way to plug those gaps in the DNA database by arresting people for being honest.

Paul Leicester, a teenager from Southport who found a mobile phone and handed it in to the police, was arrested and held at the police station for four hours. He also had his fingerprints, photograph and DNA sample taken. He had been out celebrating his 18^th birthday.

From the Crosby Herald :

Paul said, “It’s stupid. Being arrested isn’t a way to celebrate your 18^th birthday. What are you supposed to do when you find a phone? I told the last caller I would drop it off at the police station the next day. But they arrested me for theft by finding - shocking.”

Please help our campaign to protect innocent people’s DNA by encouraging friends and family to sign our petition at: http://ourcampaign.org.uk/dna

A Manchester man was arrested, held for two days, had his DNA taken and stored and was then released without charge.

His alleged offence? Taking photos of a sewer cover!

From boingboing.net (including video report):

“Though the police couldn’t find any photos of sewer-gratings on his phone (and even though “what a sewer grating looks like” isn’t a piece of specialized terrorist intelligence), he was held on suspicion of planning an act of terror, imprisoned for two days while the police searched his home, his phone and his computer.

“When they couldn’t find anything suspicious, they released him, but kept his DNA on file, as the biometric of someone who had been accused of plotting a terrorist act.”

Mr Clarke is now insisting that his DNA and fingerprints should be removed from police files.

Please help our campaign to protect innocent people’s DNA by encouraging friends and family to sign our petition at: http://ourcampaign.org.uk/dna

Liberal Democrat research has revealed that the Home Office exaggerated the extent of police injuries at last summer’s Kingsnorth Climate Camp.

Home Office minister Vernon Coaker had originally described the £5.9 million police operation as appropriate and proportionate.

Now, in response to a Parliamentary Question by Liberal Democrat Shadow Justice spokesperson David Howarth, Coaker has admitted that, “there were no recorded injuries sustained as a result of direct contact with the protesters.”

From the Telegraph:

“Kent police were criticised for being “heavy handed” and for using aggressive tactics during the Camp for Climate Action protests in August.

Ministers at the time justified the operation, pointing out that 70 officers had been injured in the course of their duties.

But not one of those injuries was sustained in clashes with demonstrators, according to documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act.

The papers, acquired by the Liberal Democrats, show that the 1,500 officers policing the Kingsnorth climate camp near the Medway estuary in Kent suffered only 12 reportable injuries during the protest in August.

The Home Office has now admitted that the protesters had not been responsible for any injuries.

Only four of the 12 reportable injuries involved any contact with the protesters at all.

Instead the injuries reported included “stung on finger by possible wasp”; “officer injured sitting in car”; and “officer succumbed to sun and heat”.

One officer cut his arm on a fence when climbing over it, another cut his finger while mending a car, and one “used leg to open door and next day had pain in lower back”.

Three other officers succumbed to heat exhaustion, three had toothache, six were bitten by insects, and others had diarrhoea, had cut their finger or had headaches.”

Commenting, Liberal Democrat Shadow Justice Spokesperson, David Howarth said:

“It beggars belief that Vernon Coaker could defend as proportionate a £5.9m policing operation in which protestors didn’t cause a single injury to police officers.

“The threat posed by environmental direct action is being systematically overblown by both the Government and the police.

“I hope that ministers and the police will now stop trying to portray peaceful protestors as somehow equivalent to terrorists or violent extremists.

“Members of Parliament have been rightly exercised by political policing rearing its ugly head with the arrest of Damien Green. They should be just as concerned when the same tactics appear to be directed at peaceful protestors.

“In light of this new evidence, it has to be asked whether climate campers were so heavily policed because they posed any genuine threat of violence, or because they posed a challenge to government policy?”

Thames Valley police has incurred the wrath of the Daily Mail, and plenty of others, for recruiting 16-year olds to be Police Community Support Officers.

And just down the M4 in London, traffic fines are costing the Met police £900 a day, the Guardian reports. Last year’s bill was well over £300,000 - up a third on last year.

UPDATE: Just noticed this one too - Penalty Notices for Disorder (also known as “pay and go” justice) are being issued at a rate of three a minute, all in the name of OBTJ targets. That’s Offences Brought to Justice, for those who didn’t know.

Over 2000 police officers quit their jobs last year - up 60% in just three years.

Labour has achieved a great deal in terms of officer recruitment, with many more police on our streets than in 1997. But if trained officers are quitting in such large numbers, that suggests some pretty serious low morale.

The full stats are here.