The Resistance Kitchen, along with over 20 other community organisations, with the support of several local councillors, have launched a campaign to stop the Metropolitan Police’s use of live facial recognition (LFR) surveillance of our community.
The diverse range of community organisations includes trade unions, law centres, youth groups, black rights, anti-racism groups, migrant rights, Palestinian solidarity, and local political parties.
The community has today sent a letter to the Commissioner of the MPS, the Minister for Policing, and the Mayor of London, amongst others, demanding the concerns of the community are listened to, and an immediate halt to the invasion, by police LFR surveillance vans, of our community spaces.
The letter reads:
“As local community organisations and community representatives, we are alarmed by the Metropolitan Police’s use of live facial recognition (LFR) surveillance in our community. We have seen LFR vans occupy our town centres, and have now also invaded surrounding districts like Thornton Heath.
Our faces are scanned and our biometric data taken without our consent, treated like suspects forced into a digital line up against a police watchlist every time we walk near one of the LFR vans.”
The letter goes on to systematically debunk 10 claims the MPS make about their use of LFR, concluding “How can the community trust you?”
It concludes by explaining exactly why the community opposes LFR:
“We oppose the police’s Live Facial Recognition surveillance system, not because of its inaccuracies or bias, but because it is an oppressive instrument of control which targets the most marginalised members of our community.
It’s a form of racialised surveillance that disproportionately impacts people of colour. In the hands of an institutionally racist police service it invariably produces racist outcomes, and contradicts the aims of your Race Action Plan.
It targets innocent people who have not committed any crime, but merely because you suspect they might do so in the future.
We refuse this dystopian future for our community.
We will not allow politicians and the police, through fear and misinformation, to cower our community to submit to such draconian surveillance.”
Only a few weeks ago we challenged the Met’s narrative on a police insiders forum. The Metropolitan Police Director of Intelligence, and Lead on Facial Recognition, Lindsey Chiswick initially responded, but then disappointingly shut the debate down when we backed our position with incontestable facts. We hope this time the Met will not ignore the community, but rather take this opportunity to engage and listen to the concerns of the community as detailed in the letter.
The Letter
The Signatories
Organisations:
- Resistance Kitchen
- Croydon Black Lives Matter
- United Tech & Allied Workers Union
- Lambeth Unison Black Workers Group
- Stand Up to Racism South London
- Advocacy Academy
- Public Interest Law Centre
- RMT Union Regional Council
- South West London Law Centres
- Abolish Reporting London
- London Underground Engineering Branch RMT Union
- Croydon 4 Palestine
- Croydon Stand Up to Racism
- Southwark & Lambeth 4 Palestine
- Political Accountability Network
- Merton Palestine Solidarity Campaign
- Croydon Withdraw Consent
- Socialist Party Croydon
- Crystal Palace Friends of Palestine
- Justice for Black Lives
- Stand Up to Racism South East London
- Wandsworth Friends of Palestine
- Croydon Revolutionary Communist Party
Councillors:
- Councillor Nicole Griffiths – Streatham, St Leonard’s – Green
- Councillor Scott Ainslie – Streatham, St Leonard’s – Green
- Councillor Martin Abrams – Streatham, St. Leonard’s – Labour
- Councillor Ria Patel – Croydon, Fairfield – Green
Since sending the letter, the following organisations and representatives have also joined the campaign as signatories to the letter:
Organisations:
- Croydon Green Party
Representatives:
- Bell Ribeiro-Addy MP – Clapham & Brixton Hill – Labour
- Councillor Esther Sutton – Croydon, Fairfield – Green