Specialist Operations
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Specialist Operations was a group of twenty specialist Metropolitan Police units which were set up in 1986 as part of Sir Kenneth Newman's restructuring of the Metropolitan Police Service. Most of the units designated SO units were already in existence, many of them as departments of C Division and its branches, and all were presided over by an Assistant Commissioner of Special Operations (ACSO).
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[edit] SO designations
Due to continual restucturing of the Metropolitan Police, only a few of the original SO units still exist in their original form and still use the SO designation. These are marked in bold. Where possible, the current name or organisation of the former SO unit is listed in italics. Where the SO designation has been reassigned to another unit, the units are listed in order
- SO1 - Specialist Protection Department (Non Royalty VIP Protection including the Prime Minister and other members of HM Government)
- SO2 - Crime Support Branch / Department Support Group
- SO3 - Scenes of Crime Branch / Directorate of Forensic Services (now SCD4 Forensic Services)
- SO4 - National Identification Service
- SO5 - Miscellaneous Force Indexes / Child Protection (now SCD5 Child Abuse Investigation Team)
- SO6 - Fraud Squad (now SCD6 Economic and Specialist Crime)
- SO7 - Serious and Organised Crime (was originally SO1)
- SO8 - Forensic Science Laboratory / Flying Squad
- SO9 - Flying Squad (reassigned to SO8, then became part of SO7) now part of SCD.
- SO10 - Crime Operations Group (now SCD10 Covert Policing)
- SO11 - Criminal Intelligence Branch
- SO14 - Royalty Protection Branch (part of the Royalty and Diplomatic Protection Department)
- SO15 [1] - Counter Terrorism Command
- SO16 - Diplomatic Protection Group (part of the Royalty and Diplomatic Protection Department) (now CO6)
- SO17 - PNC Bureau (now the Police Information Technology Organisation) / Palace of Westminster Division (part of the Royalty and Diplomatic Protection Department) (now CO7))
- SO18 - Aviation Security / Airport Policing (now CO18 Aviation Security Operational Command Unit)
- SO19 - Force Firearms Unit (now CO19 Specialist Firearms Command)
- SO20 - Forensic Medical Examiners Branch
[edit] Future changes
In 2005 the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Sir Ian Blair, announced that Specialist Operations units were to be re-aligned. The plans included forming 3 new departments within Specialist Operations to carry out specific functions:
- Protecting People, (Splitting the functions of both SO14 & SO16 and merging them with parts of SO17, SO18 and SO12)
- Protecting Places, (Splitting the functions of both SO14 & SO16 and merging them with parts of SO17 and SO18)
- Counter Terrorism Command (Merging SO12 & SO13 together)
