New report explores ‘militarised nature’ of UK policing
‘[It is] down to all of us… to defend our right to dissent.’ Network for Police Monitoring (Netpol).
A Quaker co-founded group has released a report examining what it calls the ‘militarised nature’ of British policing. ‘A Very British Problem: The evolution of Britain’s militarised policing industrial complex’ focuses on several key areas: the paramilitary policing of protests, border control and counter terrorism. It also looks at surveillance, the private tech sector, and Britain’s global role in militarised policing.
According to Keren Weitzberg, the report author, the police are increasingly relying on high-tech, data-driven, and military-grade technology to surveil the British population. She also says that ‘through the exchange of ideas, tactics and technologies, the UK government has played an outsize role in shaping global trends in militarised policing’. The report was launched on 4 August by Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) and Network for Police Monitoring (Netpol), a group that was co-founded by Quaker Sam Walton. One of the many concerns it raises is the growth in ‘powerful new surveillance technologies’ used by policing bodies which ‘vastly tip power in favour of the state’. In many cases, it says these tools are aimed at ‘preemptive policing’, which has been greatly enhanced by the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts (PCSC) Act.
Emily Apple, communications coordinator and another co-founder of Netpol, said that even before the PCSC Act, the police used their powers to ‘excessively surveil and repress protest and label activists as domestic extremists or aggravated activists’. She added that with the PCSC Act, ‘we’re more likely to see increased criminalisation and surveillance of protesters. It’s down to all of us to monitor what the police are doing and to defend our right to dissent’.
Sam Perlo-Freeman, research coordinator at CAAT, said that the report shows that policing in the UK is becoming ‘steadily more repressive’. He said the UK also trains foreign police and security services, especially around border control.
