Editing Operation Spanner (section)

=== The Obscene Publications Squad ===
The Obscene Publications Squad was a branch of the [[Metropolitan Police]] tasked with enforcing [[Obscenity|obscenity law]], most notably the [[Obscene Publications Act 1959]], which forbade the distribution of any article that "[tended] to deprave and corrupt" those who encountered it.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/Eliz2/7-8/66/contents|title=Obscene Publications Act 1959|website=legislation.gov.uk}}</ref>

In 1976, following a three-year internal inquiry,<ref>{{Cite news|title=12 Yard men on bribe charges|date=29 February 1976|work=The Observer}}</ref> it was revealed that the squad had been running a [[protection racket]] over the [[Soho]] sex industry for at least two decades,<ref>{{Cite news|title=Something smelly in the Yard|date=13 May 1977|work=The Guardian}}</ref> with Detective Superintendent William Moody alone receiving an estimated £25,000 a year in bribes.<ref>{{Cite news|title=The end of Scotland Yard's firm within a firm|date=25 August 1977|work=The Guardian}}</ref> Prosecutors described a systemically corrupt organisation<ref>{{Cite news|title=The squad which gave obscenity a meaning of its own|date=14 May 1977|work=The Guardian}}</ref> in which new recruits were coerced into attending 'Friday night shareouts', during which officers would be taken one by one into a store room at [[Scotland Yard]] and handed cash.<ref>{{Cite news|title=Porn squad 'accepted thousands'|date=10 November 1976|work=The Guardian}}</ref> Over the next two years, 13 officers were jailed,<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.thetimes.com/best-law-firms/profile-legal/article/daphne-skillern-pgzn9t3ngvb|title=Daphne Skillern|date=27 November 2012|work=[[The Times]]}}</ref> earning the Obscene Publications Squad its nickname: The Dirty Squad.<ref>{{Cite news|title=Reshuffle at the Yard by McNee|date=20 August 1977|work=The Guardian}}</ref>

In the wake of the scandal, officers of the Obscene Publications Squad were limited to two years of service, later extended to three, in an effort to combat corruption.<ref name=":12">{{cite AV media|title=Blue Boys|date=1992|type=Television production|publisher=Channel 4}}</ref> The reformed squad allied itself with the socially conservative campaign group [[National Viewers and Listeners Association|National Viewers' and Listeners' Association]] and its controversial founder [[Mary Whitehouse]],<ref name=":1" /> with the head of the squad becoming an annual speaker at Whitehouse's fringe meeting at the Conservative Party Conference throughout the late 1980s and early 1990s.<ref>{{Cite news|title=Simone's attractions fail to win case against sex censorship|last=Linton|first=Martin|date=11 October 1990|work=The Guardian}}</ref>

The squad gained significant notoriety during this period for its role in the '[[Video nasty|video nasties]]' moral panic—during which its officers raided video rental shops and seized horror films such as ''[[Evil Dead II]]'' and ''[[The Driller Killer]]''<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/film-censorship-how-moral-panic-led-to-a-mass-ban-of-video-nasties-9600998.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220524/https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/film-censorship-how-moral-panic-led-to-a-mass-ban-of-video-nasties-9600998.html |archive-date=24 May 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|title=Film censorship: How moral panic led to a mass ban of 'video nasties'|last=Phelan|first=Laurence|date=13 July 2014|work=The Independent}}</ref>—as well as a crackdown on gay pornography.<ref name=":3">{{Cite news|title=Gay men are living in fear of video prosecutions|last=Smith|first=David|date=1988|work=Him Magazine|issue=12}}</ref> Its critics accused it of having a Christian fundamentalist agenda, while the [[Gay Police Association|Lesbian and Gay Policing Association]] said its activities "damaged relations" between the LGBT community and the police.<ref>{{Cite news|title=End of a porn era|last=Saxton|first=Andrew|date=14 October 1994|work=The Pink Paper}}</ref>