Fitwatch Resisting and Monitoring Forward Intelligence Policing

The changing nature of FIT

Over the last couple of years, FIT have been under increasing criticism for their behaviour. FITwatch has put a spotlight on their activities and challenged them directly at demonstrations and protests. The NUJ has attacked them for their surveillance and obstruction of working journalists. Even the establishment HMIC, the policing inspectorate, said that FIT had operated without clear guidelines or a legal framework.

Andrew Wood took a successful case against the FIT for retaining his data, forcing the police to overhaul their systems. According to Superintendent Hartshorn of the Met, CO11 have had to delete ‘thousands’ of images from their database. FITwatch are also taking legal appeals against the legality of their collection and retention of protesters personal details.

FIT were also implicated in the death of Ian Tomlinson, as a number of them were shown to have watched unconcerned as Tomlinson was assaulted and pushed to the ground. Among those present were regular FIT cops Steve Discombe and Alan Palfrey, both of whom have given statements to the IPCC. This was reported at the time by Fitwatch and Last Hours.

Unsurprisingly, FIT have become more cautious, and wary of overstepping the mark. They are operating at more of a discrete distance, are less likely to bring out the camera teams, and are less likely to aggressively shove it in your face. FITwatch didn’t achieve this all on our own, but we played a part, and it is good to celebrate the victories that we have, because when it comes to policing, they are often few and far between.

Despite the progress we have made. the surveillance and harassment continues. At Aylesbury in May, Asian youths attending a counter demonstration to the EDL were stopped, searched, filmed and asked to provide their name and address. This is deliberate and cynical data gathering.

The HMIC report released after their enquiry into the policing of the G20 protests called for a legal framework for the operation of FIT. Reviews are continuing and some sort of statutory footing for FIT activities may well come out of this.

Whether this strengthens or weakens the powers of the police to spy on political protesters is yet to be seen.