Decision calling Project Servator intimidatory and oppressive fell afoul of ‘quality assurance process’
Environmental activists who accused police of intimidation and harassment have had a review decision in their favour withdrawn in controversial circumstances.
The decision, produced by the office of the police and crime commissioner for Devon and Cornwall, was particularly critical of Project Servator, a national counter-terrorism strategy, saying it was “increasingly being used as an intimidatory and oppressive national policing tactic”.
Project Servator is “apparently increasingly being used as an intimidatory and oppressive national policing tactic”.
While police witnesses were interviewed about the incident, those visited by the police were not. “There appears to have been a quiescent acceptance of the police account of their actions by the [police] professional standards department.”
Potential misconduct by police officers who visited the quarry and boatyard should also be considered.
The matter should have been referred to the Independent Office for Police Conduct “given the politically sensitive and national implications of such disproportionality in a protest situation”.