StopWatch

@stopwatchuk.bsky.social

An independent organisation using research, policy advocacy, litigation, and community engagement to understand the impacts of disproportionate policing and hold forces to account Contact | info@stop-watch.org Donate | https://cafdonate.cafonline.org/18388

NEW: Investigation launched following death of Black man in police custody in Croydon 🙏🏾 On 21 August, officers carrying out cell checks, found a 52-year-old man unresponsive. The Metropolitan Police has confirmed with me, the man was Black. www.voice-online.co.uk/news/uk-news...

Investigation launched following death of Black man in police custody in Croydon - Voice Online

The Metropolitan Police say the case has been referred to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) - who are now investigating

voice-online.co.uk

August 2026 newsletter: Police confidence vs public safety 🗞️ ‘Mad’ reaction to exploratory proposals by the Green party to ban police use of Tasers and pepper spray is an exercise in how consent for officers to use force with impunity is manufactured stopwatchuk.substack.com/p/august-202...

August 2026: Police confidence vs public safety

‘Mad’ reaction to exploratory proposals by the Green party to ban police use of Tasers and pepper spray is an exercise in how consent for officers to use force with impunity is manufactured

stopwatchuk.substack.com

Every police force in the country is using some form of facial recognition. But polling has suggested that 48% of people oppose scanning the faces of those walking on high streets when there is no suspected imminent threat. We urgently need safeguards on how this tech is used.

Liberty@libertyhq.bsky.social · last mo.

NEW 🚨 The Mayor of London has said static facial recognition cameras will be placed on pedestrianised Oxford Street. This is a significant escalation of technology that is capable of tracking and identifying us as we go about our daily lives. www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home...

July 2026 newsletter: Differential treatment, again 🗞️ Black boy roughly manhandled, handcuffed, and searched for playfighting with his white friends (who aren't) in one force, while officers from another boast about illegally stop-searching IC3 females stopwatchuk.substack.com/p/july-2026-...

July 2026: Differential treatment, again

Excessive force used on another Black boy in London, Norfolk police caught on camera making racist (plus transphobic and other offensive) remarks, but ethnic disproportionality remains a mystery

stopwatchuk.substack.com

June 2026 newsletter: Differential treatment 🗞️ Routine handcuffing overlooked as a fundamental problem with police-civilian interactions, while forces ramp up technological policing 'solutions' such as facial recognition and AI everywhere else you look stopwatchuk.substack.com/p/june-2026-...

June 2026: Differential treatment

The commentariat and political classes lay the blame for police response to fatal stabbing in the wrong places, overlooking the disturbing phenomenon of routine handcuffing in the process

stopwatchuk.substack.com

The Met police is to expand its use of live facial recognition technology, first into London’s West End by Christmas and then into a further six areas next year, as critics say tens of thousands of people will be forced into ‘digital police lineup’ www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

Met to expand use of live facial recognition into central London by Christmas

Technology to be used in six more areas next year as critics say tens of thousands of people will be forced into ‘digital police lineup’

theguardian.com

Monday night’s brutal knife attack rightly drew universal censure. We are now seeing a pattern of coordinated far right activists hijacking tragic and emotive incidents to incite violence against migrants and minoritised communities.

So the police force accused by Nigel Farage of "anti-white racism" is over five times more likely to target black people for stop and searches than white people The figure is higher than the average for England and has got worse over recent years www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

Nowak murder: police accused of ‘anti-white bias’ five times more likely to stop black people

Hampshire force whose officers responded to the murder of 18-year-old has a higher than average racial disparity

theguardian.com

May 2026 newsletter: Independent of scrutiny 🗞️ New criminal justice legislation introduced giving officers ever-greater discretion in the hope that it'll raise public confidence in policing, somehow stopwatchuk.substack.com/p/may-2026-i...

May 2026: Independent of scrutiny

New criminal justice legislation gives law enforcement ever greater discretion to do whatever they want to combat crime. Or can, it depends on your point of view

stopwatchuk.substack.com

What’s actually going on with digital ID? We’ve read through and responded to the Government’s public consultation that closed last week. There’s a huge gap between the government’s claims that its plans for digital ID centre privacy and control, and the system it has actually proposed.

The Metropolitan Police wants everyone to believe that the right to stamp on a mentally ill man's head is vital and necessary to maintain the public's fragile confidence in police officers, and that no other arguments are acceptable www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

Met chief says Zack Polanski undermined police with Golders Green post

Mark Rowley says Green leader’s comments risk denting confidence of officers confronting ‘dangerous’ suspects

theguardian.com

April 2026 newsletter: 🗞 High court ruling greenlights live facial recognition 🗞 Police Race Action Plan in limbo after 5 yrs of thoughts+prayers 🗞 2-yr SVRO pilot found weapons, once 🗞 Report finds Black children strip searched 8x > than white children stopwatchuk.substack.com/p/april-2026...

April 2026: The elephant in the courtroom

As the watchful eye of facial recognition cameras extends its reach across England and Wales, racialised communities are at heightened risk of suffering from its flaws

stopwatchuk.substack.com

Initial thoughts on Thompson & Carlo v the Met - live facial recognition case handed down yesterday. Tl;dr - huge PR win for the Met. No questions. But the key human rights issues unaddressed. Police LFR not arbitrary. But no comment on whether it is necessary. aihumanrights.blog/2026/04/22/2...

22 April 2026

Good morning friends, colleagues, everyone else! Its an absolutely gorgeous spring morning in London (for now at least). The big news this week, in the UK at least, is the judgment in Big Brother W…

aihumanrights.blog

What actually keeps us safe? Drawing on polling of over 5,000 people across Britain, we found that over half of the public believe investing in social and public services would do more to prevent crime than increasing police numbers or powers