In this post  Michael Abiodun Olatokun , of London Southbank University,  discusses how the Human Rights Act has assisted UK courts in balancing the competing aims of public safety against non-interference with citizens’ right to privacy, and notes the crucial role of the Act in holding the police accountable for their use of surveillance technologies. Policing in the United Kingdom is at a problematic juncture; it has been suggested that distrust in law enforcement agencies is at an all-time low [1]. A recent report of the Joint Committee on Human Rights found that 85% of black people in the UK believe that they are not treated with parity by the police, and 77% that their human rights are not as adequately protected as those of Caucasian Britons [2]. As a result, 2020 saw the growth of campaigns to ‘Defund the police’ and further protests in light of the disproportionate use of stop and search powers against minority ethnic communities [3]. The public outcry for pol...