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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 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, or example with Court Support and financial support.

If you would like Back Office to support your action we need some information to help us plan. 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. Please email with the following informationUnless you are in the East Of England, please email backoffice@riseup.net The information we need is:

  • Date 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 rebels all safely away from the site

  • Which bust-cards are being made available on the day. (you can check you have the the correct card for the region in which your action is at <a href="https://informeddissent.info)

  • Is it a joint action and if so, if another BO is engaged. And who they will phone to notify arrests?

  • Have Action Planners included within the team the capacity for any Police Station Support (PSS) including communications with BO for ongoing legal support or will they need/use BO number so as to allow BO to organise the PSS &/or get top up PSS numbers for any PSS rota

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