Cameron Crowe Fast Times at Ridgemont High book and film Did he write Fast Times at Ridgemont High? His book, Fast Times at Ridgemont High: A True Story, When did he write the book? came out in 1981. Was it popular? I don't know. When did it get made into a movie? Released in 1982, the movie version Who starred in the movie? featured no major name stars. Are there any other interesting aspects about this article? At the age of 22, Crowe came up with the idea to pose undercover as a high school student and write about his experiences.
How long was he undercover?
How long was Cameron Crowe undercover?
When Rolling Stone moved its offices from California to New York in 1977, Crowe decided to stay behind. He also felt the excitement of his career was beginning to wane. Crowe appeared in the 1978 film American Hot Wax, but returned to his writing. Though he would continue to freelance for Rolling Stone on and off over the years, he turned his attention to a book.  At the age of 22, Crowe came up with the idea to pose undercover as a high school student and write about his experiences. Simon & Schuster gave him a contract, and he moved back in with his parents and enrolled as Dave Cameron at Clairemont High School in San Diego. Reliving the senior year he never had, he made friends and began to fit in. Though he initially planned to include himself in the book, he realized that it would jeopardize his ability to capture the true essence of the high school experience.  His book, Fast Times at Ridgemont High: A True Story, came out in 1981. Crowe focused on six main characters: a tough guy, a nerd, a surfer dude, a sexual sophisticate, and a middle-class brother and sister. He chronicled their activities in typical teenage settings--at school, at the beach, and at the mall, where many of them held afterschool jobs--and focused on details of their lives that probed into the heart of adolescence. This included scenes about homecoming and graduation as well as social cliques and sexual encounters.  Before the book was released, Fast Times at Ridgemont High was optioned for a film. Released in 1982, the movie version lacked a specific plot and featured no major name stars. The studio did not devote any marketing effort toward it. It became a sleeper hit due to word of mouth.  The reviews of Fast Times at Ridgemont High were positive, and the film ended up launching the careers of some of the previously unknown actors, including Jennifer Jason Leigh, Eric Stoltz, Judge Reinhold, Phoebe Cates, Anthony Edwards, Nicolas Cage, Forest Whitaker, and Sean Penn. CANNOTANSWER
Reliving the senior year he never had,
Cameron Bruce Crowe (born July 13, 1957) is an American director, producer, screenwriter, journalist, author, and actor. Before moving into the film industry, Crowe was a contributing editor at Rolling Stone magazine, for which he still frequently writes.

Crowe's debut screenwriting effort, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, grew out of a book he wrote while posing for one year undercover as a student at Clairemont High School in San Diego, California. Later, he wrote and directed another high school saga, Say Anything..., followed by Singles, a story of twentysomethings that was woven together by a soundtrack centering on Seattle's burgeoning grunge music scene. In 1996, Crowe landed his biggest hit with Jerry Maguire. After this, he was given a green light to go ahead with a pet project, the autobiographical effort Almost Famous. Centering on a teenage music journalist on tour with an up-and-coming band, it gave insight to his life as a 15-year-old writer for Rolling Stone. For his screenplay, he won an Academy Award. In late 1999, Crowe's second book was published, a question and answer session with the film director Billy Wilder entitled Conversations with Wilder.

After the success of Almost Famous, further films followed including the psychological thriller Vanilla Sky (2001), the romantic comedy Elizabethtown (2005), which was a disappointing commercial and critical failure, the family-friendly film We Bought a Zoo (2011), and the romantic comedy Aloha (2015), which, like his prior foray into the genre, proved a disappointment.  He also directed three musical documentaries, Pearl Jam Twenty (2011), and The Union (2011), about the making of the Elton John/Leon Russell album of the same name, and David Crosby: Remember My Name (2019).  He also created the TV show Roadies, which ran for one season in 2016 on Showtime.

Early life
Cameron Crowe was born in Palm Springs, California. His father, James A. Crowe, originally from Kentucky, was a real estate agent. His mother, Alice Marie (née George), "was a teacher, activist, and all-around live wire who did skits around the house and would wear a clown suit to school on special occasions." She worked as a psychology professor and in family therapy and often participated in peace demonstrations and causes relating to the rights of farm workers. Crowe's grandfather was Greek. Crowe was the youngest of three children with two sisters; one died when he was young. The family moved around often but spent a lot of time in the desert town of Indio, California. Crowe commented that Indio was where "people owned tortoises, not dogs". His family finally settled in San Diego.

Crowe skipped kindergarten and two grades in elementary school, and by the time he attended Catholic high school, he was quite a bit younger than the other students. To add to his alienation, he was often ill because he suffered from nephritis.

Crowe began writing for the school newspaper and by the age of 13 was contributing music reviews for an underground publication, The San Diego Door. He began corresponding with music journalist Lester Bangs, who had left the Door to become editor at the national rock magazine Creem, and soon he was also submitting articles to Creem as well as Circus. Crowe graduated from the University of San Diego High School in 1972 at the age of 15. On a trip to Los Angeles, he met Ben Fong-Torres, the editor of Rolling Stone, who hired him to write for the magazine. He also joined the Rolling Stone staff as a contributing editor and became an associate editor. During this time, Crowe interviewed Bob Dylan, David Bowie, Neil Young, Eric Clapton, the Eagles, Poco, Steely Dan, members of Led Zeppelin and more. Crowe was Rolling Stones youngest-ever contributor.

Career

Rolling Stone
Crowe's first cover story was on the Allman Brothers Band. He went on the road with them for three weeks at the age of 16 and interviewed the band and the road crew.

Because Crowe was a fan of the 1970s hard rock bands that the older writers disliked, he landed a lot of major interviews. He wrote predominantly about Yes, and also about Led Zeppelin, the Allman Brothers, Jackson Browne, Neil Young, the Eagles, Rod Stewart, Eric Clapton, Peter Frampton, Linda Ronstadt, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, Fleetwood Mac, and others. Former colleague Sarah Lazin described of the youthful Crowe: "He was a pleasure to work with, a total professional. He was easygoing and eager to learn. Obviously, the bands loved him." Then-senior editor Ben Fong-Torres also said of Crowe: "He was the guy we sent out after some difficult customers. He covered the bands that hated Rolling Stone."<ref>'</ref>

Fast Times at Ridgemont High book and film
When Rolling Stone moved its offices from California to New York in 1977, Crowe decided to stay behind. He also felt the excitement of his career was beginning to wane. He appeared in the 1978 film American Hot Wax, but returned to his writing. Though he would continue to freelance for Rolling Stone on and off over the years, he turned his attention to a book.

At the age of 22, he came up with the idea to pose undercover as a high school student and write about his experiences. Simon & Schuster gave him a contract, and he moved back in with his parents and enrolled as Dave Cameron at Clairemont High School in San Diego. Reliving the senior year he never had, he made friends and began to fit in. Though he initially planned to include himself in the book, he realized that it would jeopardize his ability to capture the essence of the high school experience.

His book, Fast Times at Ridgemont High: A True Story, came out in 1981. Crowe focused on six main characters: a tough guy, a nerd, a surfer dude, a sexual sophisticate, and a middle-class brother and sister. He chronicled their activities in typical teenage settings—at school, at the beach, and at the mall, where many of them held afterschool jobs—and concentrated on details of their lives that probed into the heart of adolescence. This included scenes about homecoming and graduation as well as social cliques and sexual encounters.

Before the book was released, Fast Times at Ridgemont High was optioned for a film. Released in 1982, the movie version lacked a specific plot and featured no major name stars. The studio did not devote any marketing effort toward it. It became a sleeper hit due to word of mouth.

The reviews of Fast Times at Ridgemont High were positive, and the film ended up launching the careers of some of the previously unknown actors, including Jennifer Jason Leigh, Eric Stoltz, Judge Reinhold, Phoebe Cates, Anthony Edwards, Nicolas Cage, Forest Whitaker, and Sean Penn.

Early film efforts

Following this success, Crowe wrote the screenplay for 1984's The Wild Life, the pseudo-sequel to Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Whereas its predecessor followed teenagers' lives in high school, The Wild Life traced the lives of several teenagers after high school living in an apartment complex. Filmmaker James L. Brooks noticed Crowe's original voice and wanted to work with him. Brooks executive produced Crowe's first directing effort, 1989's Say Anything..., about a young man pining away for the affections of the seemingly perfect girl. Say Anything... was positively received by critics.

By this point, Crowe was ready to leave teen angst behind and focus on his peers. His next project, 1992's Singles, described the romantic tangles among a group of six friends in their twenties in Seattle. The film starred Bridget Fonda and Matt Dillon, where Fonda played a coffee-bar waitress fawning over an aspiring musician, played by Dillon. Kyra Sedgwick and Campbell Scott co-starred as a couple wavering on whether to commit to each other. Music forms an integral backbone for the script, and the soundtrack became a best seller three months before the release of the film. Much of this was due to repeated delays while studio executives debated how to market it.Singles successfully rode on the heels of Seattle's grunge music boom. During production, bands like Nirvana were not yet national stars, but by the time the soundtrack was released, their song "Smells Like Teen Spirit" had to be cut from the film because it was too costly to buy the rights. Crowe had signed members of Pearl Jam, shortly before their burgeoning, nationwide success, to portray Dillon's fictional band 'Citizen Dick'. He also appeared in this project, as a rock journalist at a club. Tim Appelo wrote in Entertainment Weekly, "With ... an ambling, naturalistic style, Crowe captures the eccentric appeal of a town where espresso carts sprout on every corner and kids in ratty flannel shirts can cut records that make them millionaires."

Jerry Maguire

Branching into a new direction, Crowe wrote and directed Jerry Maguire, about a highly paid pro sports agent, inspired by sports agent Leigh Steinberg. Maguire is fired after having a moral revelation, writing and distributing a mission statement calling for sincere service to the athletes and less money for the agency. He strikes out to form his own agency. Tom Cruise played the title role of Jerry and Cuba Gooding, Jr. played Rod Tidwell, an aging wide receiver, whose catchphrase, "Show me the money!", became ubiquitous for a time. Renée Zellweger appeared as an accountant, who sets aside her job security to follow Maguire's charismatic moral aspiration, in both work and love. Gooding won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his role, and the film was nominated for Best Picture, Best Screenplay, Best Editing, and Best Actor (for Cruise). Cruise also won his second Golden Globe for his role as Jerry.

Almost Famous

In 2000, Crowe used his music journalism experience roots to write and direct Almost Famous, about the experiences of a teenage music journalist who goes on the road with an emerging band in the early 1970s. The film starred newcomer Patrick Fugit as William Miller, the baby-faced writer who finds himself immersed in the world of sex, drugs, and rock-and-roll, and Kate Hudson co-starred as Penny Lane, a prominent groupie, or, as the film refers to her, a "Band-Aid". Digging into his most personal memories, Crowe used a composite of the bands he had known to come up with Stillwater, the emerging act that welcomes the young journalist into its sphere, then becomes wary of his intentions. Seventies rocker Peter Frampton served as a technical consultant on the film.

William Miller's mother figured prominently in the film as well (often admonishing, "Don't take drugs!"). The character was based on Crowe's own mother, who even showed up at the film sets to keep an eye on him while he worked. Though he asked her not to bother Frances McDormand, who played her character, the two ended up getting along well. He also showed his sister, portrayed by Zooey Deschanel, rebelling and leaving home, and in real life, his mother and sister Cindy did not talk for a decade and were still estranged to a degree when he finished the film. The family reconciled when the project was complete.

In addition, Crowe took a copy of the film to London for a special screening with Led Zeppelin members Jimmy Page and Robert Plant. After the screening, Led Zeppelin granted Crowe the right to use one of their songs on the soundtrack—the first time they had ever consented to this since allowing Crowe to use "Kashmir" in Fast Times at Ridgemont High—and also gave him rights to four of their other songs in the movie itself, although they did not grant him the rights to "Stairway to Heaven" for an intended scene (on the special "Bootleg" edition DVD, the scene is included as an extra without the song where the viewer is instructed by a watermark to begin playing it). Crowe and his then-wife, musician Nancy Wilson of Heart, co-wrote three of the five Stillwater songs in the film, and Frampton wrote the other two, with Mike McCready from Pearl Jam playing lead guitar on all of the Stillwater songs. Reviews were almost universally positive, and it was nominated for and won a host of film awards, including an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for Crowe. Crowe and co-producer Danny Bramson also won the Best Compilation Soundtrack Album for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media Grammy Award for the soundtrack. Despite these accolades, box office returns for the film were disappointing.

Vanilla Sky

Crowe followed Almost Famous with the psychological thriller Vanilla Sky in 2001. The film, starring Tom Cruise, Penélope Cruz and Cameron Diaz, received mixed reviews, yet managed to gross $100.6 million at the US box office, making it his second highest grossing directorial effort behind Jerry Maguire. Vanilla Sky is a remake of Alejandro Amenabar's 1997 Spanish film Abre Los Ojos (Open Your Eyes). Sofia is played by Penélope Cruz in both Amenabar's original movie and Crowe's remake.

Elizabethtown
In 2005, Crowe directed the romantic tragicomedy Elizabethtown, starring Orlando Bloom and Kirsten Dunst, which opened to mixed reviews, scoring 45 on Metacritic, the same as his previous effort, Vanilla Sky.

The Union

In November 2009, he began filming a behind-the-scenes look at the creation of the album The Union, a collaboration between musicians Elton John and Leon Russell produced by award-winning producer T-Bone Burnett. The documentary features musicians Neil Young, Brian Wilson, Booker T. Jones, steel guitarist Robert Randolph, Don Was and a 10-piece gospel choir who all appear on the album with John and Russell. Musician Stevie Nicks and John's longtime lyricist Bernie Taupin also appear. On March 2, 2011, the documentary was announced to open the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival.

We Bought a Zoo
With production on Aloha delayed, Crowe set his next feature, the family comedy-drama We Bought a Zoo, based on Benjamin Mee's memoir of the same name. He collaborated with The Devil Wears Prada writer Aline Brosh McKenna on the screenplay. The book's story follows Mee, who buys and moves into a dilapidated zoo (now Dartmoor Zoological Park) in the English countryside. Looking for a fresh start along with his seven-year-old daughter and his troubled fourteen-year-old son, he hopes to refurbish the zoo and run it and to give his children what he calls an "adventure". Crowe changed the location to the United States. The film received a wide release on December 23, 2011, by 20th Century Fox, and starred Matt Damon and Scarlett Johansson. It received mixed reviews. The film music was composed by Jonsi.

Pearl Jam Twenty

In an interview with Pearl Jam on March 9, 2009, bassist Jeff Ament said "... our manager Kelly has had the idea to do a 20-year anniversary retrospective movie so he's been on board with [film director] Cameron Crowe for the last few years." The band's guitarist Mike McCready also stated in March, "We are just in the very early stages of that, . . . starting to go through all the footage we have, and Cameron’s writing the treatment." Preliminary footage was being shot .  A trailer for the movie, which featured Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder choosing between three permanent markers in a shop before turning to the camera and saying "Three's good... Twenty is better", was shown before select movies at the 2011 BFI London Film Festival. The film premiered at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival and also had an accompanying book and soundtrack.

Aloha

It was announced in early June 2008 that Crowe would return to write and direct his seventh feature film, initially titled Deep Tiki and Volcano Romance, set to star Ben Stiller and Reese Witherspoon, and to be released by Columbia Pictures. Filming was expected to begin in January 2009, but this was then postponed.

The project resurfaced in 2013. Bradley Cooper, Emma Stone, Rachel McAdams, Alec Baldwin, Bill Murray, John Krasinski and Danny McBride joined the cast of the film; filming began in Hawaii in September 2013. The film's final title was Aloha and it was released on May 29, 2015 by Sony Pictures to negative critical reviews.

Roadies

On June 26, 2016, Crowe's comedy-drama series Roadies'' premiered on the Showtime television channel. The show, starring Luke Wilson, Carla Gugino and Imogen Poots, tells the story of a colorful road crew who work behind the scenes for a fictional rock band, The Staton-House Band. The pilot episode was written and directed by Crowe, as well as the series finale.

Personal life
Crowe married Nancy Wilson of the rock band Heart in July 1986. Their twin sons were born in January 2000. Crowe and Wilson separated in June 2008 and Wilson filed for divorce on September 23, 2010, citing "irreconcilable differences". The divorce was finalized on December 8, 2010.

Filmography

As an actor

Music videos

Awards and nominations received by Crowe movies

References

External links

1957 births
Living people
American male bloggers
American bloggers
American film producers
American music critics
American music journalists
American male screenwriters
Best Original Screenplay Academy Award winners
Best Original Screenplay BAFTA Award winners
Businesspeople from San Diego
Grammy Award winners
Film directors from California
Writers from Palm Springs, California
Writers from San Diego
American music video directors
Rolling Stone people
People from Indio, California
Screenwriters from California
21st-century American non-fiction writers
21st-century American screenwriters
Lego City Undercover: The Chase Begins is an open world action-adventure video game developed by TT Fusion, that was released on the Nintendo 3DS in April 2013. Unlike previous Lego titles developed by Traveller's Tales, which have been based on various licenses, the game is based on the Lego City brand and was published by Nintendo. It serves as a prequel to Lego City Undercover.

Plot
In the year 2011, Chase McCain, a rookie cop working for the Lego City Police Department, has one objective in his mind: to put the most wanted man, Rex Fury, into jail.

As far as story connections go, it was Chase who accidentally revealed that Natalia Kowalski, his girlfriend who previously worked as a news reporter turned out to be the secret witness in the Rex trial, which forced her to go under witness protection. As a result, Chase was eventually exiled from Lego City, but not before he attempted to fix his mistakes by pursuing Rex and the criminals that work for him. It also outlines how Chase managed to arrest Rex Fury.  Furthermore, the game reveals that Mayor Gleeson, a character also featured in Lego City Undercover, was formerly the chief of police, and how Chief Dunby was just a deputy officer.

Development
The game was announced during Nintendo's press conference at E3 2011 on 7 June 2011 with the tentative name Lego City Stories. On 17 January 2013, the game was revealed to be Lego City Undercover: The Chase Begins, and that it would be a prequel to the Wii U game.

Reception

Lego City Undercover: The Chase Begins received mixed reviews with aggregate scores of 64% from GameRankings and 65/100 from Metacritic. IGN gave it 6.3/10, calling it a "decent" game that is marred by "a lot of fog, a lot of loading, no voice acting and a jarring framerate".

Liam Martin of Digital Spy gave the game 3 out of 5 stars, commenting on the game's lack of appeal but praising the game's visuals and stating that "Unfortunately, where LEGO City Undercover referenced movies and used voice acting to great effect, hardware limitations have forced TT Fusion to keep spoken cutscenes to a minimum, something which ultimately detracts from the hilarity. Despite its flaws, LEGO City Undercover: The Chase Begins is a charming release, packed with diverse missions, mostly impressive visuals and a great cast of characters."

Chris Scullion of Official Nintendo Magazine gave the game 64% out of 100, commenting on the amount of cutbacks from the Wii U sequel (Undercover), stating that "The Chase Begins has far less funnier bones than Undercover. The silly jokes, clever spoofs and brilliant dialogue between the characters have been replaced with a handful of average cutscenes and loads of text-heavy dialogue which, while functional, are rarely amusing and never hilarious. Loading times were frustrating enough in LEGO City: Undercover but are even more infuriating here considering the game's running off a cartridge and is designed for handheld play. It's lacking visually, too. Thick fog (to hide having to render distant buildings) smothers the city and roads and pavements are far less crowded, making it feel like you're wandering around a post-apocalyptic LEGO City. The characters' faces don't move, making in-game cutscenes feel awkward and the frame rate is clunky if you're playing in 3D. It's technically impressive(ish), but not as fun or funny as the Wii U game."

On 12 September 2013, Nintendo announced that the game has sold 264,000 units in North America.

References

External links
 

2013 video games
City Undercover: The Chase Begins
Open-world video games
Nintendo games
Nintendo 3DS games
Nintendo 3DS-only games
Video game prequels
Nintendo 3DS eShop games
Traveller's Tales games
Video games about police officers
Video games developed in the United Kingdom
3D platform games
Video games set in 2011 Around the end of 2010 and during 2011, it was disclosed in UK media that a number of undercover police officers had, as part of their 'false persona', entered into intimate relationships with members of targeted groups and in some cases proposed marriage or fathered children with protesters who were unaware their partner was a police officer in a role as part of their official duties. Various legal actions followed, including eight women who took action against the Metropolitan Police and the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO), stating they were deceived into long-term intimate relationships by five officers, including Mark Kennedy, the first officer to be identified as such, who was publicly identified on 21 October 2010 as infiltrating social and environmental justice campaigns, and Mark Kennedy himself who claimed in turn that he had been incompetently handled by his superiors and denied psychological counselling. According to The Guardian, Kennedy sued the police for ruining his life and failing to "protect" him from falling in love with one of the environmental activists whose movement he infiltrated.

Although the units had been previously disbanded, other cases continued to emerge. In 2015 the public Undercover Policing Inquiry under a senior judge was announced. In November 2015 the Metropolitan Police published an unreserved apology in which it exonerated and apologised to those women who had been deceived and stated the methodology had constituted abuse and a "gross violation" with severely harmful effects, as part of a settlement of their cases. In 2016 new cases continued to come to light.

Background 
Mark Kennedy (also known as Mark Stone and Flash) is a former London Metropolitan Police officer who, whilst attached to the police service's National Public Order Intelligence Unit, (NPOIU) infiltrated many protest groups between 2003 and 2010 before he was unmasked by political activists as an undercover policeman on 21 October 2010. In January 2011, it was reported that Kennedy worked for several years as an undercover infiltrator for the National Public Order Intelligence Unit with seven years work in the environmental protest movement.

During this time he had entered into intimate relationships on false grounds, which came to light during 2010 as being part of a systemic pattern of exploitation and manipulation of women in such movements. It also emerged that some of these undercover police relationships had resulted in children whose fathers later "vanished" when their role was completed.

Other related undercover controversies 
It later emerged that Kennedy had previously undertaken criminal acts as part of his role for other countries, including Denmark where he stated that, in the guise of an environmental activist, he was used by the police forces of 22 countries and was responsible for the closing down of the Youth House community centre in Copenhagen, and in Germany, for German police, including arson. German MP Andrej Hunko raised questions in the German Bundestag concerning what the German authorities knew about Kennedy's activities amongst the Berlin protest movement. Kennedy had been arrested in Berlin for attempted arson, but was never brought to trial. Hunko also asked: "How does the federal government justify the fact that [Mark Kennedy], as part of his operation in Germany, did not only initiate long-term meaningful friendships but also sexual relationships, clearly under false pretenses?" The German government refused to answer all questions relating to Kennedy.

The use of undercover officers also caused the collapse of trials and led to the revelation of unlawful withholding of evidence by the Crown Prosecution Service. Six  activists accused of conspiracy to commit aggravated trespass at Ratcliffe-on-Soar Power Station collapsed following the revelation of undercover police involvement, in which the police were described as having been not just observers, but agent provocateurs: "We're not talking about someone sitting at the back of the meeting taking notes - he was in the thick of it."

Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) barrister Felicity Gerry was forced to withdraw the case against the activists after Kennedy confessed to the set-up, evidence of which the CPS had withheld from the defence. The CPS also withheld the fact that Kennedy was giving testimony under the false name Mark Stone using a false passport supplied by the police. Secret tapes "that could have exonerated six activists, known as the "deniers" because they claimed not to have agreed to join the protest" and "evidence gathered by the Guardian now suggests it was the Crown Prosecution Service rather than the police that withheld the tapes." CPS lawyer Ian Cunningham faced dismissal after a report by Sir Christopher Rose criticised Cunningham for failing to ask questions about Kennedy’s involvement in the Ratcliffe plot.

Impact, Inquiry and aftermath of disclosures 
As of 2016 the legal cases continue. In November 2015 the Metropolitan Police force apologised to seven women "tricked into relationships" over a period of 25 years by officers in the Special Demonstration Squad (SDS) and the National Public Order Intelligence Unit (NPOIU). The officers involved had eventually "vanished", leaving questions and deceit behind, described by victims as "psychological torture". Financial settlements estimated at £3 million for the seven claimants were also made as part of the settlement.

The disclosures also led to the closing of the units concerned, and a public inquiry, the Undercover Policing Inquiry, concerning the conduct of police in undercover operations. The inquiry is headed by senior judge Lord Justice Pitchford, a Lord Justice of Appeal and member of the Privy Council. One group representing victims of such practices is the Undercover Research Group, whose website provides alternative coverage and comments on the inquiry.

As of April 2018 the inquiry has confirmed that undercover police had infiltrated the following groups and movements:

Anarchist groups, Animal Liberation Front, Anti-Apartheid Movement, Anti-Fascist Action, Big Flame, Black Power movement, Brixton Hunt Saboteurs, Colin Roach Centre, Dambusters Mobilising Committee, Dissent!, Earth First!, Essex Hunt Saboteurs, Friends of Freedom Press Ltd, Globalise Resistance, Independent Labour Party, Independent Working Class Association, International Marxist Group, International Socialists, Irish National Liberation Solidarity Front, London Animal Action, London Animal Rights Coalition, London Boots Action Group, London Greenpeace, Militant, No Platform, Antifa, Operation Omega, Reclaim the Streets, Red Action, Republican Forum, Revolutionary Socialist Students Federation, Socialist Party, Socialist Workers Party, South London Animal Movement (SLAM), Tri-Continental, Troops Out Movement, Vietnam Solidarity Campaign, West London Hunt Saboteurs, Workers Revolutionary Party, Young Haganah, Young Liberals, Youth against Racism in Europe.

Former policeman Andy Coles was elected in 2015 as a Conservative councillor on Peterborough City Council and appointed a deputy to the Cambridgeshire Police and Crime Commissioner in 2016. After a mention in his younger brother Richard Coles' autobiography, he was accused of having deceived a 19-year-old political activist into a sexual relationship while he was a 32-year-old undercover police officer in the 1990s. In February 1995 the then Detective Sergeant Coles wrote the "Tradecraft manual for undercover police". He resigned as deputy commissioner on 15 May 2017 but remains a councillor and school governor.

Eventually at least 12 women received compensation from the police in the High Court of Justice, though the police avoided making internal documents about the relationships public.

Investigatory Powers Tribunal trial
Kate Wilson, one of the women who had sued the police in the high court over the relationship with undercover officer Mark Kennedy, started a case in 2018 at the Investigatory Powers Tribunal, alleging the police had infringed her human rights in five ways. In court documents, the police admitted that Kennedy’s line manager and other officers were aware of the sexual relationship, stating "sexual relationship with [Wilson] was carried out with the acquiescence of his cover officers and line manager". Previously the police had suggested such relationships were not officially sanctioned.

Scope for criminal charges
Rape in English law is defined as "unlawful sexual intercourse with a woman who (a) at the time of the intercourse does not consent to it, and (b) at that time he knows that she does not consent to the intercourse or he is reckless as to whether she consents to it." The basis of a prosecution therefore revolves around whether or not consent is given in law, or its absence was ignored.

The CPS statement clarified that misrepresenting identity, and obtaining sexual consent due to a false identity, was not generally a crime in UK law, other than in specific situations such as impersonating a person's partner, or deceit as to gender. Other than in specific limited situations set out in statute, the general rule in UK law is that deceit only creates a case of rape (known as "rape by deception" or "rape by fraud") if "the act consented to was not the act undertaken". Crown Prosecutors declined to bring charges against any police officers or their supervisors, including charges for rape and other sexual crimes (covering sex under false pretences, unconsented sexual acts, and other potential offences), on the basis that rape charges would be unlikely to succeed. For similar reasons, indecent assault, procurement for sexual intercourse by false pretences, and misconduct in office were also felt to lack sufficient basis for a conviction. A leading case on "rape by fraud" is R v Linekar, in which the Court of Appeal had previously held that very narrow restrictions should apply to such cases of deceit in the context of rape prosecutions. (The reasoning being that otherwise rape could be alleged following any minor broken promise or any misrepresentation with sexual activity, and would risk no longer being a uniformly serious offence.)

Police response
In November 2015, the Metropolitan Police Service issue the following statement:

Victims' ongoing concerns
In January 2016, further cases continued to come to light. A complainant stated that they sought disclosure of the cover names of officers who were engaged undercover in this way, and their supervising officers, so that those who had been deceived into relationships, and potentially suffered thereby, would be able to discover the fact.

Changes to UK undercover policing practices 
At present, the inquiry is in process and the final report not yet created; the sole known impact on police practice is the above statement combined with the alleged disbanding of the units involved.

See also 
 Covert policing in the United Kingdom
 Undercover
 Agent provocateur
 Rape in English law
 Consent (criminal law)#Consent obtained by deception
 Bob Lambert (undercover police officer)
 Cuban Five - other intelligence officers whose relationships with unsuspecting victims resulted in litigation

References

Further reading
 Undercover: The True Story of Britain's Secret Police, Rob Evans, Paul Lewis (Guardian Books, Faber & Faber, 2012) 
 What Spycops Did Next, article by Merrick Badger (Real Media, January 2017)

External links 
 Undercover Research Group article on how one such undercover officer in a relationship was determined to be a police officer "after the fact".
 Undercover Research Group post: "15 signs" suggesting a person may have been an undercover police operative
 Official website of the Undercover Policing Inquiry.

Law enforcement scandals
Surveillance scandals
Law enforcement techniques
Law enforcement in the United Kingdom
Controversies in the United Kingdom
Scandals in the United Kingdom
Sex scandals
2015 scandals
2015 in the United Kingdom