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Content type: Advocacy
In August 2024 the UK College of Policing (CoP) announced they were consulting on new guidance for data ethics and data driven technologies in policing. As part of the consultation the College asked for feedback on two new authorised professional practices (APP) on data ethics and data-driven technologies. PI provided a response in writing to the CoP on their APP on data ethics and data-driven technologies only.In our response we highlighted that we are aware that UK police forces are using a…
Content type: Examples
Clashes between police and lockdown protesters have spawned reports of police brutality in Greece. Mobile phone footage of one such protest in March 2021 suggested that the police are using drones to surveil the protests, and some of those remanded have complained that they’ve been beaten and subjected to threats and sexual harassment while in custody. Disinfaux Collective has identified an individual caught on video throwing a petrol bomb as “either a police officer of the DRASI unit… or,under…
Content type: Examples
Israel is abandoning its longstanding tactic of raiding Palestinian homes for “intelligence mapping” in favour of digitised surveillance that includes a vast and sophisticated 20-year-old network of CCTV, ANPR, and IP cameras throughout the Old City in East Jerusalem (“Mabat 2000”), automated facial recognition-equipped checkpoints (provided by the domestic company AnyVision) between Israel and the occupied West Bank, and drone surveillance at Palestinian protests. The drones over weekly…
Content type: Examples
US Customs and Border Protection Data show that the Department of Homeland Security deployed helicopters, airplanes, and drones over 15 cities, including New York City, Buffalo, Dayton OH, and Philadelphia, where demonstrators assembled to protest the killing of George Floyd and collected at least 270 hours of video surveillance footage. That deployment, which sparked a congressional inquiry, was only part of a nationwide operation that repurposed resources usually sent to the US border to find…
Content type: Examples
Human rights activists and Democratic members of the US Congress wrote to top law enforcement officials in the Trump administration to demand they cease surveilling Americans engaging in peaceful protests. Trump and others in his administration called those protesting the killing of George Floyd "domestic terrorists" and "anarchists". Recent efforts to surveil Americans have included facial recognition, automated licence plate readers, and Stingrays, as well as spy planes and drones.
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Content type: Examples
During the Black Lives Matter protests of summer 2020, US police took advantage of a lack of regulation and new technologies to expand the scope of people and platforms they monitor; details typically emerge through lawsuits, public records disclosures, and stories released by police department PR as crime prevention successes. A report from the Brennan Center for Justice highlights New York Police Department threats to privacy, freedom of expression, and due process and the use of a predator…
Content type: Explainer
What are police drones?
Drones are remotely controlled Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) of varying sizes.
They usually come equipped with cameras and might be enabled with Facial Recognition Technology.
Drones can be equipped with speakers, surveillance equipment, radar and communications interception tools, such as ‘IMSI catchers’.
How might drones be used during protests?
Camera-enabled drones may be used to remotely monitor and track people’s movements in public spaces, including at…
Content type: Report
Privacy International has released a report summarising the result of its research into the databases and surveillance tools used by authorities across the UK’s borders, immigration, and citizenship system.
The report uses procurement, contractual, and other open-source data and aims to inform the work of civil society organisations and increase understanding of a vast yet highly opaque system upon which millions of people rely.
It also describes and maps…
Content type: News & Analysis
In a legal challenge brought by French activist group, La Quadrature du Net (LGDN), the Conseil d’État, the French highest court, has ruled that the use of drones by the police in the context of monitoring compliance with Covid-19 lockdown measures was unlawful.
The ruling found that the imagery and footage captured by drones flying at a low altitude was personal data to the extent that individuals filmed were identifiable. Consequently, the operation of drones by the police amounted…
Content type: Examples
Spanish police are using drones to warn people to stay indoors apart from necessary trips after seeing a spike in COVID-19 cases. Human officers control the drones and relay via radio warnings to people to leave public parks and return home.
Source: https://www.businessinsider.com/spanish-police-using-drones-to-ask-people-stay-at-home-2020-3
Writer: Charlie Wood
Publication: BusinessInsider