Citizen-led policing in the digital age and the right to respect for private life

What will the consequences for privacy be as citizens get more involved in policing? Citizen-led policing is not new. However, advances in technology are driving new forms of citizen involvement in crime control. Citizens can now quite easily engage in covert surveillance and other activities, which might previously have been considered the preserve of well-resourced state law enforcement agencies. An emergent body of criminological literature is documenting these trends but has not yet grappled with the normative and legal consequences of these developments. This chapter engages in such analysis from the perspective of fundamental human rights. It draws upon privacy scholarship and relevant criminal procedure and human rights jurisprudence to examine contemporary developments in citizen-led policing in England and Wales, with a particular focus on online child abuse activist groups. This analysis suggests that the courts have narrowed avenues of legal protection for those subject to coercive or intrusive non-state policing measures in this novel policing landscape. Citizens who police can sidestep the rules and norms governing state police activities, and this poses an unacceptable threat to the privacy rights of those subject to their activities.