Netpol condemns calls for expanding surveillance on “far left, anarchist and environmentalist” groups

Jul 17, 2019 | Comment, Domestic Extremism, Protest

PHOTO: Julia Hawkins on Flickr The report published today by conservative think-tank Policy Exchange, attacking campaigners from Extinction Rebellion, is a direct call for expanding surveillance on “far left, anarchist and environmentalist extremism”. The report’s...

Kings College head of security who blocked students during Queen’s visit was former Metropolitan Police Chief Superintendent

Jul 12, 2019 | Domestic Extremism, Protest

Photo: Shutterstock A London university employed a former senior police officer as its head of security. Now he has left after unlawfully sharing a student protest ‘watch list’ with former colleagues in the Metropolitan Police. Last week, Kings College London...

It is time to open up the secret world of “domestic extremist” policing

Jul 5, 2019 | Support Us

PHOTO: Netpol Last week, the Guardian’s report on compensation paid by the Metropolitan Police for the mass arrests of anti-fascist campaigners in 2013 included confirmation from court documents of the deployment of covert officers at the demonstration in Tower...

Domestic extremism label is ‘manifestly deficient’ says former reviewer of terrorism laws

Jun 19, 2019 | Domestic Extremism

Police intelligence gatherers at an east London pro-Palestine action. PHOTO: from the Netpol Flickr Pool In a report published last week, David Anderson QC, a former independent reviewer of UK terrorism legislation, has called the ‘domestic extremism’...

Letter: Police must stop labelling campaigns as “domestic extremists”

Jun 16, 2019 | Domestic Extremism

Published by the Guardian on Tuesday 18 June 2019 One of the greatest threats to free speech in Britain is the routine labelling, by the police, of non-violent protests and campaigns as “domestic extremism”. This is a term that has no clear legal definition but yet is...

CALL-OUT: trained legal observers requested for Trump state visit next week

May 30, 2019 | Protest

GBC legal observers at London anti-Trump protests in 2018. PHOTO: Netpol With one of our partner groups, Green and Black Cross (GBC), currently pausing its activities to reorganise and rebuild its capacity, the Network for Police Monitoring (Netpol) has...

Five paranoid reasons why the police label campaigners as “domestic extremists”

May 29, 2019 | Domestic Extremism, Protest

This article first appeared on The Canary on 30 May 2019 It is unclear exactly how many people have their personal details included on the police’s national “domestic extremist” database – to give it its full name, the National Special Branch Intelligence System...

Talking to the Cops – A Guide for Protest Groups

Mar 13, 2019 | Protest

Acknowledging a renewed debate about the merits and risks for protesters negotiating or communicating with the police, one of the co-founders of environmental group Extinction Rebellion claimed in February that concerns raised by other campaigners were “a proxy for...

Your Rights During Police Trials of Facial Recognition Technology

Feb 12, 2019 | Don't Be On A Database

PHOTO: Big Brother Watch At the end of January, the Metropolitan Police held the latest trials of facial recognition technology that is intended to pick out suspects from crowds, using cameras that scan faces to see whether they match images on a database of targets....

It’s Time to Close Down the Police’s “Domestic Extremism” Databases

Feb 5, 2019 | Domestic Extremism

Drawing by John Catt, 2011 A European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) judgment in January, in a case brought by veteran peace campaigner John Catt, is extremely significant for the future of protest surveillance. For seven years John has argued that the decision by the...