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Comment by nolok | Hacker News Reader

I can't help but think that at the other end of that spectrum lies the british infiltrated cop that once he got his mark arrested left the girl he was with undercover and the kid they had together, without any support, and with his former associates fully knowing, with the british court saying she didn't deserve any child support or anything.

I don't know where the line is or how it should be done, but I know as much as I know anything that it's not the proper solution if it ends with "and some innocent bystander live was (temporarily) ruined in the process".

(I used that exemple because it's the one I always remember as the court case marked my mind, but I'm sure most countries have an equivalent)

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When the British shop Lush tried to criticize this practice the UK Chair of Police Calum MacLeod launched a campaign against them too, asking them to apologize to the police for the criticism of this behaviour: https://www.theguardian.com/media/2018/jun/01/cosmetics-reta...

Minor clarification: Calum MacLeod was the chair of the Police Federation, which is effectively the trade union for police officers in England and Wales (below the rank of Superintendent -- senior officers have their own association). The Federation is often pretty vocal whenever police come in for criticism, so its actions here weren't out of the ordinary. (Which doesn't justify them, of course.)

Do you have a link where I can learn more about this case? I've never heard of it before.

Not OP, but I think they were referring to this:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-29743857

Trying to remember the name of the book it is covered in, too

Edit: Book was "Undercover: The True Story of Britain's Secret Police" iirc

One example: https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2011/jan/19/undercover-police...

https://www.spycops.co.uk/

"At least 20 of the undercover officers deceived women into intimate, sexual relationships.

The women had no idea that they were having relationships with men who were police spies. Some of the undercover officers had relationships with more than one woman during their undercover missions.

After the existence of the covert operation began to be exposed in 2010, the women grouped together and successfully took legal action against the police. So far, the police have paid compensation to at least 12 women who were deceived by the undercover officers."

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