Back Office support for an action

Back Office consists of a group of trained volunteers. The main functions of Back Office during an action are to:

• Compile and maintain a record of arrestees;
• Co-ordinate, and remain in contact with, supporters at police stations to which arrestees have been taken;
• Respond to phone calls, mainly from: people reporting arrests, arrestees (custody calls), friends and family members of arrestees, people reporting on incidents such as police misbehaviour, rebels with legal questions.

We also liaise with Arrest Welfare so that arrestees can be supported later in their journey, for example with Court Support and financial support.

Most regions are supported by the main Arrestee and Legal Support Back office; East of England has a regional Back Office that can support EofE groups taking local action.

If you are coordinating an action and would like Back Office support we need the following information to help us plan:

• Date of action:
• Location (City/Town) of action:
• Start Time:
• Anticipated End Time:
• Local Group:
• Risk of arrest: (low, moderate, high).
• Expected numbers of arrestees:
• Contact: (Name/Alias, Number) - someone who Back Office can contact on the day, and who will phone Back Office when the action is over and all rebels are safely away from the site
• Which bustcard is being made available on the day (you can check you have the the correct card for the region in which your action is at https://informeddissent.info/bustcard)
• Is it a joint action? If so, we need to know whether any other Back Office (e.g. Green and Black Cross) is being used by one or more of the other groups.
• Have Action Planners included within the team the capacity for Police Station Support (PSS)?
  • Please ask rebels willing to do PSS for their team to join one of the three WhatsApp groups listed below. A PSSC (PSS coordinator) will post in them when a police station is confirmed as 'live' and supporters can then join the relevant station group and post their offers of support there.
    A fuller guide to doing PSS is available on the Toolkit.
  • WhatsApp group joining links:
    • https://chat.whatsapp.com/HX07vNTURqLEyVgDo012NI
    • https://chat.whatsapp.com/KFZpuvZtVMy2wN0w5AHIOr
    • https://chat.whatsapp.com/FMi8rrD9C7ZBzlKm3OUtuZ

For the main Arrestee and Legal Support Back Office, email the information to backoffice@riseup.net.
For East of England regional Back Office email xr-eoe-backoffice@protonmail.com