From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
UK police unit
For other similarly named police units in Commonwealth territories, see
Special Branch
.
Special Branch detectives on an undercover operation at the
London Docks
, 1911.
Special Branch
was a unit in the
Metropolitan Police
in London, formed as a
counter-terrorism
unit in 1883 and merged with another unit to form
Counter Terrorism Command
(SO15) in 2006. It maintained contact with the
Security Service (MI5)
and had responsibility for, among other things, personal protection of (non-royal)
VIPs
and performing the role of examining officer at designated ports and airports, as prescribed by the
Terrorism Act 2000
.
History
[
edit
]
In response to the escalating
terror campaign
in Britain carried out by the militant
Irish Fenians
in the 1880s, the
Home Secretary
Sir William Harcourt
established the first
counter-terrorism
unit ever in 1883, named Special Irish Branch, to combat Irish republican terrorism through infiltration and subversion. It initially formed a section of the
Criminal Investigation Department
within the
London Metropolitan Police
.
[1]
Harcourt envisioned a permanent unit dedicated to the prevention of politically motivated violence through the use of modern techniques such as
undercover infiltration
. This pioneering branch was the first to be trained in counter-terrorism techniques.
[2]
In 1886 its name was changed to Special Branch as its remit had gradually expanded
[3]
[4]
to incorporate a general role in counter-terrorism, combating foreign subversion, and infiltrating
organized crime
and trades unions,
[5]
[6]
becoming the largest
Special Branch
in the United Kingdom. Although it later became independent of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), its officers were entitled to use the prefix "Detective" in front of their ranks.
Special Branch investigated the
General Post Office Tower bombing
in 1971 and the following year the investigative wing of its "X squad" became the
Anti-Terrorist Branch
(SO13).
[7]
It also investigated the sieges at
Balcombe Street
in 1975 and the
Iranian Embassy
in 1980, the
Libyan Embassy shooting
in 1984, along with the bombings at
Hyde Park and Regents Park
in 1982,
Harrods
in 1983,
Brighton
in 1984 and
Bishopsgate
in 1993.
The attempted bombing by
Nezar Hindawi
of an
El Al
flight from Heathrow to Israel in 1986 was also investigated by Special Branch, along with
Provisional IRA
mortar attacks on
Downing Street
in 1991 and
Heathrow
in 1994 and their
Canary Wharf bomb
in 1996. Beyond that campaign, it led the investigations into the racist and homophobic
1999 London nail bombings
along with
Richard Reid
in 2001 and the
bombings
and
attempted bombings
in London in July 2005. The formation of SO13 had begun a process which on 2 October 2006 culminated in Special Branch and SO13 merging to form
Counter Terrorism Command
(SO15).
[8]
Commanding officers
[
edit
]
Notes
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
Bowman, Timothy (2019).
"Ireland: Rebellion and counter-insurgency, 1848?1867"
.
Small Wars & Insurgencies
.
30
(4?5): 895?912.
doi
:
10.1080/09592318.2019.1638547
.
S2CID
203083810
.
- ^
Aniceto Masferrer, Clive Walker (2013).
Counter-Terrorism, Human Rights and the Rule of Law: Crossing Legal Boundaries in Defence of the State
. Edward Elgar Publishing. p. 294.
ISBN
9781781954478
.
- ^
"Timeline - 1829 to 1899"
. Friends of Metropolitan Police Heritage.
- ^
Wisnicki, Adrian (2013).
Conspiracy, Revolution, and Terrorism from Victorian Fiction to the Modern Novel
. Literary Criticism and Cultural Theory. Routledge. p. 150.
ISBN
978-1-135-91526-1
.
With the collapse of Parnell's political career in 1891 and the general, if temporary, demoralization of the Irish cause, the Special Branch's interests shifted to other revolutionary and anarchist groups, and the word
Irish
dropped out of the name.
- ^
Barckley Sumner (17 March 2021).
"Norman Tebbit's admission about government involvement in spying on trade unionists must be fully investigated"
. Unite The Union
. Retrieved
30 October
2022
.
- ^
Patrick Maguire (18 March 2021).
"Special Branch spied on union leaders, Norman Tebbit admits"
. The Times, News UK
. Retrieved
30 October
2022
.
- ^
"UK | Special Branch to close in merger"
.
BBC News
. 9 September 2005
. Retrieved
11 June
2009
.
- ^
"Metropolitan Police Service ? Specialist Operations"
. Met.police.uk. Archived from
the original
on 3 July 2009
. Retrieved
11 June
2009
.
- ^
Wilson & Adams (2015)
p. xiii
.