POLICE monitoring groups have raised concerns about what they have described as aggressive targeting of protesters during the Cop26 summit in Glasgow. 

The Network for Police Monitoring (NetPol) reported on Sunday evening that it believes officers are identifying activists ahead of demonstrations in the city during this month’s climate summit.

Netpol campaigns co-ordinator Kevin Blowe said in a statement that the group had received reports of campaigners being turned away from pubs, as well as a significant increase in the use of stop-and-search powers by police in the city. 

Writing on Twitter, the Scottish Community and Activist Legal Project urged activists to be aware of their rights amid concerns that the Cop26 conference could see police overstepping their powers. 

NetPol has now called on Police Scotland to adhere to its human rights obligations in its policing of Glasgow in the coming days. 

Mr Blowe said: “It is depressing to watch Police Scotland, from the very start of Cop26, abandon its much-publicised promises to remain ‘friendly, fair and accommodating’ to protesters.

“Predictably, we have seen already the use of widespread intrusive surveillance, the deployment of forward intelligence team officers to target individuals even when protests are not taking place and the arbitrary, disproportionate use of police stop-and-search powers.”

He said that he hoped MSPs, the Scottish Police Authority and Police Scotland’s own independent advisory group will use the human rights charter to assess whether senior officers’ messages about respecting human rights were ever anything more than hollow promises.

Police Scotland was approached for comment.