UK: company run by retired police officers promoting electric-shock torture equipment
Film obtained from Birmingham trade fair shows staff at UK company The Squad Group Ltd demonstrating electric-shock gloves which deliver painful electric shocks
Call on West Midlands Police and HM Revenue & Customs to urgently investigate
‘It’s disturbing that a UK company led by three former police officers has openly promoted these devices’ - Dr Michael Crowley
‘No-one should be allowed to profit from the sale of torture equipment’ - Sacha Deshmukh
A British company led by retired police officers - including a former Assistant Chief Constable - has been caught on camera demonstrating electric-shock torture equipment at a trade fair in Birmingham.
The revelations, made by Amnesty International UK and the Omega Research Foundation, raise serious questions about the enforcement of laws in relation to the prohibition of torture equipment as well as the staging of security equipment trade events, with campaigners saying it should prompt an urgent investigation by West Midlands Police and HM Revenue & Customs, as well as the trade fair organisers, Nineteen Group Ltd.
In one video, filmed yesterday at the Emergency Services Show at the Birmingham NEC, representatives of the company, The Squad Group Limited - which markets itself as the “Sole UK & Ireland partner of Compliant Technologies”, a US company promoting a range of electric-shock devices - are seen demonstrating devices (known as the “G.L.O.V.E.”), direct-contact devices which emit a painful electric charge on contact with a restrained person’s skin. During their demonstration, The Squad Group Limited emphasise that the electrical charge setting was only at “one tenth” of what the device is capable of. The person volunteering to receive the shock - apparently a serving police officer - is seen grimacing in pain when the glove is used to grab his arm.
In addition, the company has also promoted a body-worn electric-shock device, the “E-Band Restrictor”, on its website. This device, which is designed to be worn around the ankle of a prisoner, can deliver painful electric shocks repeatedly via a remote control.
In a briefing document to accompany the video, Amnesty and Omega explain that the trade in direct-contact and body-worn electric-shock weapons is illegal under laws regulating the arms and security trade, with UK companies and nationals banned from importing, exporting or in any way promoting these goods anywhere in the world. Electric-shock weapons are prohibited under The Trade in Torture etc. Goods (Amendment) (EU Exit) Regulations 2020, and current Government export control guidance clearly states that all trading activity, including promotion and marketing of these goods anywhere in the world, is prohibited.
Due to their design and purpose, these electric-shock weapons are inherently abusive and can be used to carry out torture, including through the application of multiple or continuous electric shocks, as well as electric shocks to vulnerable areas of the body such as the head, neck and genitals. In the UK, police use of Tasers is the only permissible use of electric-shock weapons, and then only under strict licensing conditions. The G.L.O.V.E. is a conductive energy distraction device, the means of that distraction via the application of electric shocks, and as such Amnesty International UK and the Omega Research Foundation believe it falls clearly within the scope of prohibited torture goods.
The Squad Group Limited is a new company, only registered in May 2023, and its three company directors are all retired police officers. The company’s founder, Adam Conn, is a former police officer and emergency services worker; its CEO, Matthew Nicholls, is a former Assistant Chief Constable with the Hertfordshire Constabulary; and its chief operating officer, Simon Thompson, is a former police officer with the Metropolitan Police. On the company website all three detail their extensive police experience, with two citing their knowledge of weapons deployment in policing.
Last year, The Squad Group Ltd representatives appeared in photographs and videos demonstrating the use of the G.L.O.V.E. and E-Band Restrictor devices to members of the Royal Gibraltar Police at a two-day seminar event in Gibraltar. Officers from UK police forces, UK Border Force and officials from the Ministry of Defence attended the event, either in person or remotely.
After yesterday’s discovery, Amnesty International UK and the Omega Research Foundation alerted the trade fair organisers Nineteen Group Ltd and the relevant UK authorities. At the time of writing, it is unclear what action - if any - has been taken.
Sacha Deshmukh, Amnesty International UK’s Chief Executive, said:
“It’s alarming in the extreme that torture equipment is openly being demonstrated at a UK trade fair, and West Midlands Police should urgently investigate this.
“Bringing any direct-contact electric-shock weapon into the UK must surely be a serious breach of import-export controls, and HMRC should investigate to see if the rules banning torture equipment are being properly enforced.
“The organisers of this trade fair have serious questions to answer about how they allowed torture equipment to be touted at their event. No-one should be allowed to profit from the sale of torture equipment.”
Dr Michael Crowley, Researcher at the Omega Research Foundation, said:
“The UN Special Rapporteur on Torture has specifically identified direct-contact electric-shock weapons and body-worn electric-shock weapons as inherently-abusive goods that should be completely prohibited.
“It’s disturbing that a UK company led by three former police officers has openly promoted these devices on its website and demonstrated direct-contact electric-shock weapons at an international trade fair.
“The Squad Group’s ability to attend and demonstrate inherently-abusive devices to a seminar of UK and Gibraltar police officers is also deeply concerning, and should be investigated to establish if UK law was broken and whether serving UK law-enforcement officers or Government officials knew of or facilitated these actions.
“The UK now also needs to become a global champion in the fight against torture by supporting the call for an international Torture-Free Trade Treaty to end the global trade in these abhorrent products.”