If the police are raiding your meeting
There have been several incidents where the police have raided venues to pre-emptively arrest people planning protests or simply holding social events to explain their campaigning activities. Invariably this is targeted towards particular individuals but raids can also sweep up everyone.
A police raid is sudden, frightening and so difficult to prepare for. If there is a raid, make sure at least one member of your group knows to remind everyone that they do not have to say anything to the police [no comment] until they have spoken to a solicitor, nor should they give their personal details, at least until they have are taken to a police station (this also means not to other detainees in the back of a police van).
If police are aiming to key organisers and you are not a target, film what is happening. Tell the Protest Support Line as soon as possible.
If the police are trying to attend events uninvited
It is difficult to control police attendance at public meetings if officers are not in uniform and you should always assume that any event where you don’t know everyone is public, not private.
However, if uniformed officers show up at a meeting insisting they are simply attending to ‘facilitate dialogue’, you can ask to leave if there is no obvious reason for them to be there. The law says police must have a genuine belief that a breach of the peace is likely before entering private premises (including a privately hired meeting venue). Remind them that some people may find their presence intimidating and an obstacle to speaking. You can also say that if the police want ‘dialogue’ with your campaign, you would prefer it is in writing.
In these circumstances, it is better to have a group of campaign members negotiate the police’s departure from the meeting (to avoid identifying an individual as a ‘leader’) and to give them a general campaign email address, not a personal one. Remember that you do not have to give you name.
In 2023, Cornwall Resists offered a masterclass on how to deal with this kind of situation.
If the police are filming outside a public meeting
If uniformed intelligence-gathering officers are obviously filming or taking photographs of people arriving for a public meeting, there is nothing to stop you filming or photographing them too. Although the government is trying to tighten the law, there is only limited circumstances preventing campaigners from covering their faces, so advise people leaving an event to do so.
If the police are applying pressure on venues
There have been numerous occasions when police have approached venues hosting political or protest planning meetings, to express concerns or to ask for information – such as the name of the person booking the rooms. In some cases, this sudden interest by the police has resulted in venue managers pulling out of bookings, sometimes at the last minute.
It is also not uncommon for police to approach landowners who have agreed to allow environmental camps or gatherings on their land, sometimes resulting in the rescinding of permission.
The police know venues are less resilient to this kind of harassment so establishing good communication from the start with the people you are hiring from is important. Ask them to let you know immediately if the police start asking questions, to seek the name and telephone number of the officer who has contacted them and reassure them that you will deal with the inquiry directly.
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