The Countryside Alliance says it is working with counter-terrorism police
But we only have its word on how they’re collaborating
Documents allegedly showing “information sharing” between the Countryside Alliance and counter-terrorism police were exposed in a leaked document. This touched on long-held concerns by anti-hunting activists about collusion between hunts and police. And it’s not the first time this has happened.
Counter-terrorism
A PDF titled Saboteur update – September 2019 was shared in early January 2021 by Hunting Leaks, which publishes internal documents allegedly leaked from the hunting community. The September 2019 document discusses the building and maintenance of a “dedicated database” for storing data on hunt saboteurs. It says a new system would hold “mainly photographs and video”, and it would supplement an older system that contains “basic saboteur data”. The document says this database would aid in “tackling the sab issue”.
However, a paragraph on page three of the document has raised particular concern among anti-hunting activists. It says that the Countryside Alliance has been with “working with the Counter Terrorism Policing – National Operations Centre”, with which it has an “information sharing protocol… showing extremist activity in the field and other connections online”.
An example of what this database may look like was also shared by Hunting Leaks. It shows a “Report and Update” for activity between 14th November and 12th December 2020.
Neither confirm nor deny
The Citro submitted a freedom of information (FOI) request to the Metropolitan Police to try and find out more information. The Met is responsible for overseeing the Counter Terrorism Operations Centre. Police monitoring group Netpol also submitted an FOI for similar purposes. However, on 18th March 2021 the Met responded to The Citro’s FOI with a ‘neither confirm nor deny’ (NCND) statement, citing multiple sections including national security.
Netpol received the same response.
The writer of this article previously submitted an FOI to the Met about its work with the National Trust. The request asked for details of contact between the charity and the National Domestic Extremism and Disorder Intelligence Unit between 2017and 2018. Its aim was to uncover information about National Trust consultating with the police on anti-hunting activism including hunt sabotage. However, like the more recent request, the Met provided a NCND response on exactly the same grounds. As a result, the most recent NCND did not come as a surprise.
Database of videos and photos
Technology news website ComputerWeekly.com covered the story with some depth on 29th January. Responding to allegations about holding personal data on hunt saboteurs, ComputerWeekly.com quotes a spokesperson for the Countryside Alliance, saying that it doesn’t hold “sensitive personal information” on sabs. Instead, the information is:
mainly photographs and videos of incidents and activity that has taken place at hunts or hunt property, together with supporting material from social media, that could lead to criminal prosecution for violence, public order, harassment or other offences
The technology magazine goes on to note that the Countryside Alliance refused to say how much information it was holding on individuals.
The Citro contacted the Countryside Alliance about the issue but hadn’t received a response at the time of publishing.
Try and try again
This is not the first time that the Countryside Alliance has been exposed for holding data on sabs. As Twitter user @GnusCast highlighted on 16th March, The Guardian published an article headlined “Hunt lobby holds personal files on thousands”.
The November 2002 piece describes a database of information held by the pro-hunt lobbying group that may have included:
physical descriptions, habits, current marriage or partnerships, loans, mortgages, sexual life, mental health record, security details, student record, convictions, political opinions, lifestyle, ethnic origin, political opinion, religious beliefs, financial transactions, union membership, and infirmities.
The Guardian described this trove of information as “records on individuals that are at least as comprehensive as those of the state”. Then, as now, the Countryside Alliance stated it was holding the data in order to help police investigations.
The links between this database, the older log holding “basic saboteur data”, and the most recent one that Saboteur update – Sept 2019 says was first “agreed” on in 2018, are unclear. However, repeated attempts at creating systems to collect this information suggest the Countryside Alliance’s efforts consistently fall short.
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