The National Public Order Intelligence Unit, or NPOIU, was a public order policing unit which existed from 1999 until 2011. It was most notable for running undercovers and maintaining a database on political campaigners it categorised as ‘domestic extremists’. It was based in London under the aegis of the Association of Chief Police Officers’ Terrorism and Allied Matters Committee (APCO TAM), and officers were seconded from around the UK. Initially it operated independently, but in 2006 was integrated into the national domestic extremism units under ACPO’s National Co-ordinator for Domestic Extremism (NCDE).
Figures from the Undercover Policing Inquiry reveal the NPOIU deployed around 22 undercovers during its existence; only 8 will have their cover names disclosed, though a number were already discovered by activists. They operated on a national basis targeting a variety of groups, particularly left-wing, and environmental, though details are much more limited than with the Special Demonstration Squad.
It is most notable for deploying EN12 Mark Kennedy ‘Mark Stone’, who infiltrated environmentalists and conducted multiple sexual relationships. When he was exposed, the political backlash resulted in the closure of the unit. It was stripped of the ability to deploy undercovers and its intelligence-gathering activities were taken into a successor organisation, the National Domestic Extremism and Disorder Intelligence Unit (NDEDIU).
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