Friday, March 06, 2009

The Database State

Revealed: police databank on thousands of protesters | UK news | guardian.co.uk

"Police are targeting thousands of political campaigners in surveillance operations and storing their details on a database for at least seven years, an investigation by the Guardian can reveal.

Photographs, names and video �footage of people attending protests are �routinely obtained by surveillance units and stored on an 'intelligence system'. The �Metropolitan police, which has �pioneered surveillance at demonstrations and advises other forces on the tactic, stores details of protesters on Crimint, the general database used daily by all police staff to catalogue criminal intelligence. It lists campaigners by name, allowing police to search which demonstrations or political meetings individuals have attended."

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