they certainly did, i got there around 12 and the area was completely surrounded. there were helicopters, riot vans, undrecover cops dressed a bit like ravers.

from what i can gather they just let a dog loose in the party which gave someone a bit of a mauling.

the combined forces of a few jumped up ravers causing shit and a lot more jumped up coppers gagging for a bit of trouble ended up in a near riot.

There is a lot of paranoia about this but usually its just fairly obvious cops in plain clothes (its just that they can get in “closer to the action” than uniformed officers) who only are there to count the numbers and assess damage to buildings etc. Unmarked traffic cars with cameras and plain clothes officers are fairly often used; but most of this is easy to spot.

Often you will see the same cops in uniform at other raves!

its easier for them to get into licensed clubs though as there’s more of a drinking culture, but most young cops are actually chaperoned by an older detective of a senior rank when they try this sort of stuff.

There were a few “deep cover” operations about 11 years ago (particularly on the licensed rave scene)- but the rave scene is extremely hard to infiltrate because the drugs culture is so strong, and once a cop is witnessed using drugs their evidence gained by intelligence becomes inadmissible

the people whom the cop was tracking could also covertly record the cops’ illegal activity and grass them up to another solicitor or the media..

it worked for a bit but a lot of young detectives were sucked in by the temptation to do drugs or even deal them; and several had to leave the force because of this…