She added, “These arrests are nonsense. It was just an excuse for the Met to find out my name, take my figure prints and look at my phone to see how these demos are organised.”

Another protester, who’s friend was trapped in the kettle in the snow for three hours before being arrested, said “I think what’s confusing the cops is how this is organised. They can’t seem to work out how these protests are happening and how to stop them and that’s why they feel the need to collect as much information on everyone as they can”

Green and Black Cross legal group supporting the demonstrations on the day report many incidents of undercover police officers, members of the Forward Intelligence Team (FIT), mixing with protestors in order to gain information. One member of the group reports seeing undercover police bringing out batons after protestors in Lewisham on Monday night attempted to enter the town hall during a council meeting on budget cuts.

Shane from Green and Black Cross said, “What we are noticing is a huge concentration of police resources being put into information gathering, especially around the student demos this month. The concern for us is that students, particularly school or college students, aren’t aware of this tactic and make it easy for the Police to monitor them by talking about everything they did or saw at the protests on Facebook.”

Clarification from FITWatch:
Forward Intelligence Team cops are not undercover cops – their whole remit is to provide overt surveillance. However, whereas previously they were easy to spot – often sporting a blue flash on their uniforms reminiscent of community support plods,due to adverse publicity, they are now trying to hide more and are wearing normal high vis uniforms on demos.

However, there are undoubtedly many undercover cops who are also in the crowd gathering intelligence – but there is a clear distinction.

Further clarification:
There is also a difference between undercover cops and plain clothes cops - undercover seek to infiltrate groups and pass themselves off as protestors, whilst plain clothes cops do not necessarily do so. Undercover cops are unlikely to break cover by drawing batons in public situations.