Boom Box documentary casts spotlight on unethical tactics of undercover policing

I t was the undercover police operation that led to 37 people being jailed for more than 400 years in total after officers set up a fake recording studio and record shop on a north London housing estate. Now, a four-part television documentary has brought Operation Peyzac back under the spotlight, prompting renewed scrutiny of the tactics used by undercover officers and calls for the operation to be examined by the UK’s ongoing spycops inquiry. After a spate of violence, including five murders in the area, the Metropolitan police launched the operation in 2008, tasking officers to pose as music industry figures in a recording studio called Boombox to gather intelligence on gang crime, drugs and firearms offences. The studio offered aspiring musicians access to recording facilities and mentorship, creating what participants described as a rare opportunity in an area with few resources for young people. But 18 years on, opinions remain divided over the ethics of the tactics used. Human rights campaigners and some of those convicted argue the operation crossed ethical lines, while officers insist it helped prevent further bloodshed and disrupted serious criminality. The renewed scrutiny comes after the release of Boom Box: Beats and Betrayal, an HBO and Discovery+ documentary that tells the story through the eyes of the young men who attended the studio and also from the perspective of the undercover officers. …