Guantánamo Bay contractor on shortlist to run UK police services.
By Alan Travis and Matthew Taylor May 3rd 2012. Find Full Article Here:-
US firm KBR, which helped build detention camp, among consortiums bidding to run police services in West Midlands and Surrey.
A US Pentagon contractor that was involved in building Guantánamo Bay is on a shortlist of private consortiums bidding for a £1.5bn contract to run key policing services in the West Midlands and Surrey.
The Texas-based Kellogg Brown & Root, which was sold off by the controversial Halliburton corporation in 2007, is part of a consortium which has made it to the final shortlist for a contract that will see large-scale involvement of the private sector in British policing for the first time.
When KBR was still part of Halliburton it won a large share of Pentagon contracts to build and manage US military bases in Iraq after the 2003 invasion. Its former chief executive, Dick Cheney, was US vice-president.
The Guardian has learned that 15 groups of companies and individual firms have made it on to the most recent shortlist. More than 200 firms initially expressed an interest at a “bidders’ conference” held in March.
The list includes several private security companies that are already involved in running private prisons, escorting and deporting prisoners or providing other criminal justice services.
Chris Sims, the West Midlands chief constable, told the FT last month that his force was a good testing ground for fundamental change as he battles to find £126m of budget savings. He said that the armed forces had already embraced a greater role for the private sector more fully than the police without sparking uproar.
Sims cited the KBR as one example as the Texas company employs the large contingent of civilian staff managing the British Camp Bastion in Afghanistan.
