Why ask the police for the data they hold about you?
Recent media coverage of undercover surveillance by the Metropolitan Police’s Special Demonstration Squad (SDS) during the 1990s, which targeted Stephen Lawrence’s family, police custody death campaigners and organisations, only tells part of the story. To some extent, the focus on this period has distracted attention away from a far bigger surveillance operation, throughout England and Wales, than the London-centred activities of the SDS.
Over the last decade, the trawl for data about ‘domestic extremists’ across the country has been carried out by a number of secretive units based within the Association of Chief Police Officers. It was one of these units – the National Public Order Intelligence Unit – that undercover officer Mark Kennedy worked for.
In 2010 they were merged into a single National Domestic Extremism Unit under the control of the Metropolitan Police, which has continued to gather vast quantities of intelligence data and sift it for patterns and connections, supposedly to predict how individuals and groups will act.
Was this article helpful?
That’s Great!
Thank you for your feedback
Sorry! We couldn't be helpful
Thank you for your feedback
Feedback sent
We appreciate your effort and will try to fix the article