Recent video of Brooklyn Center protests show why doxxing Police must be stopped

A video from recent protests in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota is a perfect illustration of why states should move now to pass anti-doxxing laws. The video, available on social media, shows activists urging protestors to identify police officers using the internet, and then identify their home addresses and the names of their family members.

Holy crap. Watch BLM protesters threaten to dox these officers and kill their families. https://t.co/PKwh0A9c46 pic.twitter.com/5Nj4RIw05R

— Not the Bee (@Not_the_Bee) April 12, 2021

Peace officers, military personnel and prosecutors in recent years have faced a growing threat from the practice known as “doxxing” in which their personal, private information is obtained, sometimes through legal means and sometimes illegally, and spread online via a variety of social media. In most cases the information posted online has included home addresses, obviously putting law enforcement and military personnel, and their families, at great risk.

Some states are moving to protect America’s heroes with legislation outlawing the practice and imposing severe penalties on those who participate in the practice.

For example, Representative Shane Stringer of Alabama has authored HB403 to make doxxing law enforcement officers and other officials a crime and impose penalties on offenders. His bill passed the Alabama House almost unanimously with broad bipartisan support. It now awaits action before the Alabama Senate Judiciary Committee.

The Center for Security Policy highlighted the risk to police and other emergency personnel from doxxing in August, 2020, following a rash of similar incidents during the 2020 summer riots. As we noted at the time:

The primary suspect for these doxxing events is Antifa, which maintains a robust open-source intelligence capability to identify targets for future intimidation. It has been reported that at violent Antifa protests in Portland, communist insurgents have read law enforcement officers’ personal information aloud over megaphones, and in Seattle Antifa members attempted to target the home of the Seattle Chief of Police.

Some agencies have taken measures to protect law enforcement officers by concealing name tags and using alternative forms of identification, but this has led to threats of legal action from the Antifa-allied National Lawyers Guild, and caused agencies to face substantial negative media attention.

This chilling video in which protesters facing off with police officers specifically threaten to dox the officers and find their family members once again  highlights the urgent need for action on doxxing.