“The development of the digital policing tech happens at such a speed that it grows on a daily basis. When asked, people have told us how overwhelming, intimidating and isolating it feels. And we are not surprised because the tech is intimidating. It became apparent that the last thing those affected by the digital tech the most, and those organising around it needed was some kind of leaflet or booklet which regurgitated academic journals and tech jargon manuals, but something that offered information, examples, practical tools, and ideas on how to build and resist- and so the idea for a toolkit was born.”
Zara Manoehoetoe, part of Northern Police Monitoring and Kids of Colour
“But in reality, people are nonetheless resisting. That is how, in most cases, we know of abuses – because people notice something and they talk to one another, because they meet and do not accept the injustices they face, because they talk in community and in movements, build knowledge and debunk myths. These oppressive technologies can only be challenged when the impacted com- munities tell what is happening - flagging the flaggers; when they organise, when they see a chance to win. Without community there is no justice.”
Laurence Meyer, Weaving Liberation
About the toolkit
This community-centred and informed toolkit, written by Zara Manoehoetoe, offers an overview of what digital policing is and aims to do. It also showcases some examples of how we can resist, and the importance of building a collective and international, cross-movements solidarity.
The genesis of this toolkit is an online Digital Policing workshop, as part of an early series of workshops from the “Digital Rights for All” initiative. The participants expressed the need to have a document which gave an overview of the different digital tools used to reinforce policing as a mean to surveil, control and coerce. With many more “Digital Rights for All” workshops behind us, this toolkit is finally seeing the light of day.
“This resource has been created with the belief, commitment and long-term vision of a safe world. Created with the abolitionist belief that people, the public, you, us, will one day be liberated. The long-term goal is the dismantling of oppressive systems: reaching a place where communities have worked together to build relationships, invest in healing, and create new infrastructures, mechanism, services and places of support, reaching a time where the weight of power has been tipped.”
Zara Manoehoetoe.
Digital Toolkit policing
digital policing harms
This section explores different types of digital policing tech, and real examples of organisers of harm they cause, including some efforts to resist against them. It is split into two broad themes, the digital policing of people, and place. We do this, recognising the two overlap, but to offer context to how the technology is deployed.
tools of resistance
In this section the tools that are introduced provide basic information about things we can do in our resistance against the harms of digital policing. The order in which the tools have been presented in the toolkit have been done so, because through our engagement with organisers, the tools have been used in a similar kind of order, with each one naturally folding into the next building blocks in a foundation to build community resistance from.
building a movement
‘Without community there is no justice.’ This section explores what it takes to build a movement – the culmination of all of our resistance efforts.’
Report developed and designed by Zara Manoehoetoe, part of Northern Police Monitoring and Kids of Colour with the support of our co-director Laurence Meyer.
Visual identity by Alice Z Jones
Graphic design and art direction by Claire Zaniolo and Estelle Ndjop Pom
