ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

UK undercover policing relationships scandal

Okay kiddo, so the UK undercover policing relationships scandal is when some police officers pretended to be someone else and had relationships with people they were supposed to be investigating.

Imagine if you were playing hide and seek, but instead of just hiding, you pretended to be your friend's dog to fool them into thinking you weren't playing. That's kind of what these police officers did, but instead of pretending to be a dog, they pretended to be someone who was interested in the people they were investigating.

This was a big problem because it was against the rules for police officers to have romantic relationships with people they were investigating. The police officers were supposed to be gathering information to help solve crimes and protect people, but instead they were using their undercover identities to get close to people in a way that wasn't allowed.

People were rightfully upset when they found out about this, because it really wasn't fair that the police officers weren't following the rules. Some people even felt like they had been tricked and lied to by the police officers.

In the end, the UK government had to investigate what had happened and make sure that rules were put in place to make sure it couldn't happen again, and that people who were affected by the scandal could get help and support.