Fake News?
The background to the Trower report
The true origins of the Trower Report
If you haven’t read it, it is here.
In 2001, Barrie Trower, gave a talk on TETRA to the Devon and Cornwall branch of the Police Federation. Such was the impact, that they immediately sent for their national representatives to hear the same talk, this time in Exeter.
As a result, the national representatives urged that the same talk should be taken to London, to the main Police Federation Headquarters. Here Fred Broughton, the Chairman of the Police Federation of England and Wales was sufficiently moved that he asked that the content be put into writing.
Steve Pierce, the Chairman of the Devon and Cornwall Police Federation, commissioned Barrie Trower to do this (his own words), and made it possible by hiring a room and moving in staff and equipment so that the task might be completed without delay. Over the course of a week, Barrie Trower dictated the content of the report to the police security secretary. Once complete, Barrie Trower’s work was done; but it was the Treasurer of the Police Federation, not Barrie Trower, who said: ‘I would like the title to be: Confidential Report on TETRA. Strictly for the Police Federation of England and Wales’.
Barrie Trower supplied the names of five independent scientists he could recommend for peer review, and accepted any other scientists of the Federation’s choosing to do likewise. So in September 2001 the ‘Trower Report’ went off for peer review.
Who is Barrie Trower?
He writes:
‘In the 1960s I trained at the Government Microwave Warfare Establishment. I worked with the Underwater Bomb disposal unit which used microwaves within its unit. In the 1970s one of my tasks over an eleven year period was to de-brief spies involved in microwave warfare. The location and process that I used I cannot go into as it is still considered secret. I have two Degrees, and a Diploma and in my retirement I now teach Advanced Level Physics, some Mathematics and some Human Physiology at South Dartmoor College.
‘In September 2001 I was commissioned by the Police Federation to write ‘The Tetra Report’.
Barrie Trower is no fly-by-night pseudo scientist, out to scare and make a name for himself. It’s just that he knows what he is talking about.
Meanwhile, in January 2002, some 30 police officers were reported as suffering from illnesses relating to the use of TETRA. The report was not yet released post-peer review. Rather than be accused of sitting on a report that warned of these things, the Report was released by the Police Federation of England and Wales. An officer released the Report onto the Internet, where it was rapidly ‘adopted’ and disseminated by campaign groups. But it was never written as a campaign document, and did not appear first as such. Read it yourself.
Immediately afterwards, the then Chairman of the Police Federation of England and Wales retired, to be replaced by the current Chair, Jan Berry. She called a conference on TETRA in Birmingham, funded by mmO2, and Barrie Trower was not invited to attend or present the quite worrying case he had put before the Federation. In fact, during the entire day, just 20 minutes was allowed to any opposition to TETRA.
Is this what you have heard?
The NRPB says this:
‘This is not a commission as most people would understand it. If the Police Federation had decided they wanted a report on TETRA and paid an appropriate person (or persons) to write it, that would be a commission.
‘So I believe the claim made that Trower was commissioned by the Police Federation is misrepresentation.
‘The chairman has expressed concern that they were presented with his report and it simultaneously appeared on anti-mast websites as commissioned by PolFed and “confidential”.
‘Clever campaigning, but not a commission.’
What do you think? Do you think we should listen to Barrie Trower’s concerns? Why is it so necessary for the Chair of the Police Federation, so supportive of Airwave, and the NRPB, to disparage and dismiss this report?
Is this yet more NRPB fencing? If Barrie Trower had been paid, then he would presumably be accused of being ‘paid to oppose TETRA’. And if he was not paid, then he wasn’t commissioned at all? Either the Police Federation asked him to do it or they did not! And it seems they went to an awful lot of trouble and expense to ensure the Report was written . . . And what is worse, the predicted outcomes of TETRA started to appear even before the Report could be released.
