Communities for Justice

We’re once again back at the awesome ECC in Easton, Bristol, this time in two rooms- the main hall and the Stapleton room, from 12.30 pm to 18.25 pm for the launch of Communities For Justice, the largest community event we’ve ever held! We extended our event time to fit in an additional section of the day for youth and families.

We’re partnering on the event with Black South West Network as well as The Bristol Cable and the day kicks off with an introduction and welcome from all of us.

Lunch is from 13:45 to 14:15 enjoy the great food available in the cafe and powerful spoken word from Bristol City Poet Sukina Noor in the main hall. We will also have an afternoon break from 15:15 to 15:25.

Communities for Justice is a space to learn together, connect struggles, and build the tools we need to understand the realities of policing now and what’s coming next, and how to challenge them.

For years, communities in Bristol have been watching the police: documenting stop and search, challenging controversial stop and search tactics like Section 60, practicing bystander intervention, and learning our rights when policing enters our lives.

Community police monitoring has always been about protection, accountability and survival — and in 2026, it still matters.

But the face of policing is changing.

Power no longer only shows up on the street. It now sits in databases, algorithms and risk scores. Decisions are increasingly shaped by data systems operating out of sight, without consent and with little scrutiny.

In Bristol, a national testing ground for mass data gathering by the police and other services— tens of thousands of people have been quietly profiled in the name of safeguarding.

But, we’re here to say: surveillance isn’t safeguarding.

Across the day, we’ll start with what we know: why we continue to say no to stop and search, Section 60 and “precision” policing powers, and how to protect each other through copwatching and knowing your rights. Then we’ll look ahead - unpacking how police technologies and AI systems work, exposing bias and discrimination, and sharing ways to resist systems that criminalise communities while claiming to care.