Undercovers in the Special Demonstration Squad (SDS) and the National Public Order Intelligence Unit (NPOIU) worked as part of a team. As well as other undercovers, there were back office staff providing support functions or who handled the practicalities of receiving and typing up intelligence reports. These were usually of the rank of Sergeant.
Above them were the Detective Inspectors who oversaw the general running of the unit and the dissemination of intelligence. A Detective Chief Inspector headed the unit, with responsibility for major decisions, signing off on deployments and exits of undercovers from the field or policy in general. They, in turn, answered to more senior officers, depending on where the unit was located.
For the SDS, the managers and back office staff were all drawn from Metropolitan Police Special Branch. For the NPOIU, they were seconded from regional forces.
It is known that the NPOIU had 67 managers in its 11 year existence, while the SDS had 170 over its 50 years.
The SDS managers and staff were based at New Scotland Yard and later at Vincent Square. The head of the unit was a Detective Chief Inspector (DCI) supported by a Detective Inspector (DI) and several more junior officers, of Detective Sergeant or Detective Constable level. Often they were assisted by undercovers preparing to be deployed, and sometimes by undercovers who had just left the field. This appears to have been the case for the majority of its history, with the exception of the founding period 1968-1969 when it had three Detective Inspectors.