Flying Squad

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The Flying Squad is a branch of London's Metropolitan Police Service. It was formed in 1919, as the "Mobile Patrol Experiment" A branch of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), in response to a crime wave that followed the end of World War I^{[citation needed]}. Its members were originally nicknamed the "thief takers". It consists of police officers whose task is to detect and prevent armed robbery and similar crimes. The name alludes to two facts. First, that when the squad was first formed it was equipped with two old Crossley cars that had formerly belonged to the Royal Flying Corps; and second, that Flying Squad officers operate across the boundaries of London's usual police divisions, often (at least in the public imagination) in vehicles driven at high speeds.

In 1978 it was renamed the "Central Robbery Squad". Its most popular nicknames are "the Sweeney" (in Cockney rhyming slang, "Sweeney Todd" corresponds to "Flying Squad") and "The Heavy Mob".^[1]

1 1970s
2 Investigations
3 Other mentions of the Flying Squad
4 See also
5 References

[edit] 1970s

The Flying Squad's work was dramatised in the 1970s British television series The Sweeney, starring John Thaw and Dennis Waterman. This was the era in which the squad's close ties with the criminal fraternity, which had always been a necessary part of its strategy, were being exposed to public criticism. A number of scandals involving bribery and corruption were revealed, and on 7 July 1977, the squad's commander, Detective Chief Superintendent Kenneth Drury, was convicted on five counts of corruption and jailed for eight years. Twelve other officers were also convicted and many more resigned. These and other scandals led to a massive internal investigation by the Dorset Constabulary into the Metropolitan Police Service and the City of London Police – code named Operation Countryman.^[2]

[edit] Investigations

The largest investigation ever undertaken by the Flying Squad was instigated in 2000 after the squad received intelligence that a group of individuals were planning a robbery from the Millennium Dome. Their goal was to steal the De Beers Millennium Diamonds, eleven rare blue stones and the 777 carat flawless Millennium Star. Worth over £200million, the diamonds are second in value only to the Crown Jewels making them a high profile target for only the most organised criminals. With this information the Flying Squad initiated Operation Magician, the largest of its kind. The perpetrators: William Cockram, Raymond Betson, Aldo Ciarrocchi, Kevin Meredith and Robert Adams were arrested during the commission of the crime and charged the next day. Meredith was sentenced to 5 years imprisonment and the rest 15 years each.

The squad now forms part of the Serious and Organised Crime Group of the Specialist Crime Directorate.

On 13 September 2007, the Flying Squad was involved in an incident outside a bank in the village of Chandler's Ford, near Southampton. Two suspected armed robbers were shot dead by members of CO19 Specialist Firearms Command, in support of a Flying Squad operation, who had been lying in wait after receiving a tip off that an armed robbery was imminent. The thieves were attempting armed robbery on a Securicor security van outside the HSBC branch when they were killed by the CO19 SFOs.

[edit] Other mentions of the Flying Squad

In fiction

In the best selling game of 2002 "The Getaway" as a Detective Constable (DC) Frank Carter, who is setup by his corrupt boss Detective Chief Inspector (DCI) Clive McCormack, of the Metropolitan Police's Elite Flying Squad.

In television comedy

Episode 29 of Monty Python's Flying Circus in its penultimate skit featured the "Special Flying Squad of the Light Entertainment Police, Comedy Division", which sports in its ranks officers named "Fox" and "Thompson's Gazelle" who keep interrupting the penultimate skit.

In poetry/theatre

In T. S. Eliot's poem Macavity, the titular feline criminal is referred to as "the Flying Squad's despair" (as well as "The Napoleon of Crime", a term also used for the Arthur Conan Doyle villain, Moriarty).