Resources: Investigative and Proactive Resources for Protests

What are the resources available to assist in the prevention, disruption and detection of protesters and their protests? Welcome to the fifth and final article in this series, where I will briefly look at an aspect of protests each article.

Setting the Scene

The country and the world at large are increasingly becoming a fractious, violent, and tumultuous place marked by unrest. With the rise of misleading media, exaggerated hype, conspiracy theorists, and self-appointed, unqualified ‘sleuths and hacks,’ is the population being more directly encouraged towards protests and disruptive behaviour?

While groups like ‘Stop the Oil,’ ‘Extinction Rebellion,’ and ‘Plane Stupid’ are among the more recognised organisations, even smaller, local protests can cause significant disruption, economic loss, and fear for those targeted by the demonstrators. Protest groups, both organised and established, actively seek publicity to further their causes, with many having an international reach. Similarly, localised protest groups aim for local and national attention.

As covered in the previous ‘Tactic’ and ‘Target’ articles, protestors are diverse, and a weaker and easier target can have the same promotional effect for them as a large common target.

From The Broad To The Specific: Business Continuity

You need to be ahead of the game as much as possible. This means engage in risk planning and business continuity for as many perceived protest activities that you can foresee.

Work from the more realistic scenarios to the most unlikely. From the likely to the unlikely. You need to consider even the most ridiculous scenario. Because what seemed ridiculous once may become the daily reality. Terror attacks have proven this perspective time and again.

From there, you may need to review your ‘situational crime prevention methods.’ That is what I’d call your ‘bells, bolts and whistles.’ Simple examples may include the following questions:

• Is your perimeter secure?
• Does CCTV work and it is effective?
• Does your lighting support your CCTV?
• What are your access controls systems and are they fit for purpose?

There is an extensive list of situational crime prevention methods to review. When I conduct assessments, 100% of the time the businesses involved are weak and ineffective to prevent crime, let alone deal with protests and protestors.

Your Employees / Subcontractors

In pre-planning there is a need to consider not only those on site but those in satellite offices or working from home. Personal data is simple to lawfully obtain so being off site may not always ensure security. The health and safety of all concerned is of the most paramount importance and huge consideration must be given to protect individuals, so careful consideration must be given to this in the risk assessment.

Get Your Legal Matters In Place

Working with Solicitors and in house legal, you can prepare as much from the legal procedural side as possible, ensuring a swifter response when the situation arises. This could include pre-emptive action prior to a protest or upon a protest taking place. Trespass procedures are one of the more common legal procedures.

Pro-Active Resources When Dealing With Protest Groups

Detailed below are resources available for use. There are situations whereby employees or sub-contractors support the associated protest or protestor and it would also be naïve to think that certain protest organisations have not infiltrated a business or organisation by having someone gain employment in the relevant business or industry, particularly at a lower or middle hierarchical level.

The resources can be used or mixed and matched as required. This includes simple document services to injunct or for debt recovery against individuals, right up to the more proactive resources:

Surveillance

Nationwide surveillance coverage by our team of former Police dedicated surveillance officers. Surveillance can be used to monitor individuals(s) or locations.

Data Scrape / Social Media Monitoring

We conduct background investigation services, due diligence, threat intelligence, and digital forensic technologies.

Risk Assessment

We can conduct a risk assessment and work from the broad and general to the specific. Identify the likely to the unlikely and to the most ridiculous.

Undercover Officers

Our team of former Police detectives are our undercover officers. Where feasible they can join protest groups in person or online and deliver real time intelligence and evidence allowing for pro-active detection, prevention or disruption to protests and individual protestors.

Covert Vehicle Tracking

We lawfully deploy covert tracking devices to monitor the movement of any vehicles.

Computer Data Forensics

We retrieve data from computers, laptops or mobile phones. Ability to do out of office hours or a weekend and all evidence is secured in accordance with civil procedure rules.

Interview and Investigation Teams

Our team of former Police detectives will investigate any allegation and follow it through to its natural conclusion, securing and preserving all evidence which may include obtaining statements of evidence and interviewing suspects.

Locate Trace Reports

Our multi-corroborated reports are 97% accurate year-on-year and returned in 3 to 5 days. Urgent same day reports available.

Background Checks / Fit to Sue Asset Reports

We comprehensively obtain lawful information, returned in 3 to 5 working days.

Process Serving

Including urgent same day via email, collection from any location and international serves.

Here are a series of case studies that highlight the work of various protest groups and the resources we used in dealing with them:

As a business, an individual, group or organisation who may be subject to the potential protest and activist activity there is a need to consider how to:

Any activity. All businesses must adopt a business continuity strategy, working from the broad and general to the specific. Please take a look at the rest of the articles in the series to get a full picture:

1. Protest Groups: An Introduction
2. Targets: Who And What Are The Targets For Protests?
3. Narrative: What Is The Message For The Protest?
4. Tactics: What Are The Key Strategies Behind The Protest?

Many of the comments in this article are too complex to be discussed in this short article and the author seeks not to trivialise or overlook them, but merely use them as a conduit to support the narrative.

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