Territorial Support Group
[1] TSG units patrol London in marked police vans or "carriers"; using the call sign prefix "Uniform".
This level of protection allows them to deal with many violent situations, including riots, football violence, and suspects armed with a variety of weapons.
Exercises are conducted predominantly at the MPS Specialist Training Centre in Gravesend, Kent, though other sites are used as required, and encompass all public order scenarios.
Officers are selected on merit and much emphasis is placed upon their personal policing ability, motivation, resilience and good communication skills.
Three of these vans can form an operational Serial ready to respond to incidents; following the national PSU model, this would include an inspector, three sergeants, eighteen constables, two medics and three drivers.
[3][6] The TSG also maintains a fleet of armoured Ford F450 based Jankel Guardians[7] for use in serious public order situations, like the 2011 England riots.
Peter Waddington, who has been credited with developing kettling, countered this conclusion in the British Journal of Criminology by pointing out that their equipment is mainly defensive.
As employees, the police force have a duty to protect them from harm, he also notes that paramedics in riot situations also wear similar helmets and armour.
Waddington uses examples from three Poll Tax Riots to illustrate that the assumption that their deployment causes violence is not correct.
Waddington states that whilst the deployment of the TSG in a riot situation is never desirable, it is often essential to maintain order and limit violence.
[11] Senior officers say that the type of work that the TSG are involved with, policing protests and performing drug raids makes them more likely to have complaints made against them.
Commenting on these figures, a member of the Metropolitan Police Authority stated that officers in the TSG are "practically immune" from criticism.
The man was charged with assault and threatening behaviour over the incident but was cleared after photographs of his injuries showed the officers had lied about the case under oath.
[15] In 2003, six officers of the TSG performed what a judge in 2009 called a "serious, gratuitous and prolonged" assault and "religious abuse" on suspect, Babar Ahmad, a 34-year-old IT support analyst who was not subsequently charged with any offence.
[23] Another investigation into six other officers of the TSG by the IPCC was launched following allegations made by three men that they were racially abused during an incident during June 2007 in Paddington.
Following her complaint, the Crown Prosecution Service announced in September 2009, that there was sufficient evidence to charge Sgt Smellie with assault.
Following the investigation into police handling of the protest, the human rights group Liberty called for further study of what it referred to as the "militaristic approach" used by the TSG.
