Exposing the realities of gang policing and surveillance

Once a young person has been labelled a gang member, it impacts every area of their life

Created to launch the #EraseTheDatabase campaign, this documentary brings together the people behind a growing movement to expose the harms of the Metropolitan Police's gang "policing" and dismantle the unlawful Gangs Matrix - a database that labelled thousands of people as gang members. Produced by the Erase the Database Collective - a partnership between UNJUST, 4FRONT and Tottenham Rights - it features activists, community leaders, academics, lawyers and 4FRONT members, combining political analysis with first-hand accounts of what it meant to be labelled a "gang member" and live under unlawful police surveillance. In February 2024, following years of collective organising and legal challenge, the Metropolitan Police scrapped the Gangs Matrix.

#EraseTheDatabase Documentary

#EraseTheDatabase a documentary that exposes the realities of gang policing and surveillance.

#Erase the Database

Healing through art, music and collective expression.

There’s some kind of ownership in going ‘That’s my experience, but I’m getting used to it’ you know? 

Part of 4FRONT's Community Healing Project, the HeART Programme was created in recognition of music and creativity as vital tools for self-expression, emotional processing and healing - particularly for 4FRONT members who found it difficult to speak directly about their pain. This behind-the-scenes film captures the energy of the programme, where music, spoken word and collective practice became pathways for connection, creative resistance and reclaiming our stories about our lives in the ends. The programme took place at the 4FRONT Studio at Jahiem’s Justice Centre in February 2024.

The Heart Programme

The HeART Programme was created in recognition of healing through art, music and collective expression.

Paid employment became part of 4FRONT's approach to youth leadership. A film that explores how paid employment became part of 4FRONT's approach to youth leadership.

 I’m responsible for trying to make a change in the community and makiNg younger members' lives better. 

Youth leadership has always been central to 4FRONT's work, with training, responsibility and paid employment embedded into how we support members to grow and lead. This film follows Zak, a Community Healing and Justice Fellow, and Jahvenna from the Communications Team as they reflect on their journeys from members to staff, sharing what they learned through stepping into roles that helped shape both the organisation and their own futures. It offers a glimpse into an approach that recognised the leadership, knowledge and potential already present within the young people in our community.

Member Stories: Working and Growing: Building Youth Leadership Through Employment

Building youth leadership through training and paid employment to support members to grow and lead.

Member Stories

Announcing the UK's First Community Justice Centre

Out of something so horrific and painful, something beautiful is going to be birthed, to honour him. 

Released on the first anniversary of the death of Jahiem Legister-Hall, this film announced the opening of Jahiem's Justice Centre. Named in honour of a core 4FRONT member whose life, spirit and commitment to change continued to shape our work, it documents how profound grief and unimaginable loss became a commitment to build something that would honour Jahiem's life, carry forward his legacy and create hope for generations to come. We reclaimed space on Grahame Park Estate to create a community-led centre dedicated to reimagining peace, justice, safety and freedom through creativity, empowerment and healing. This film captures the vision, love and collective determination that made the centre possible.

Jahiem's Justice Centre

This video marks the launch of Jahiem’s Justice Centre, built in memory of Jahiem Legister-Hall.

Community reflections ahead of the opening of Jahiem's Justice Centre

A vital place. It's a place where his memory is going to live on. And his spirit is going to live on. Long live Jahiem.

Released two days before the official opening of Jahiem's Justice Centre, on what would have been Jahiem Legister-Hall's 18th birthday, this film brings together reflections from the 4FRONT community. Together, they share what Jahiem meant to them and why creating the centre in his honour mattered so deeply. Preserved here are the voices of a community navigating profound grief while collectively choosing to build a lasting legacy rooted in love, remembrance and hope.

Jahiem's Justice Centre: Why it matters to us!

The community reflect on what Jahiem meant to them and why creating the centre in his honour mattered so deeply.

Why it matters to us!

Why fighting for racial equity means reimagining justice

 This kind of holistic support is what is transforming my community and our society.

In this TEDxLondonWomen talk, 4FRONT Founder Temi Mwale reflects on the realities of systemic racism and the limits of the criminal legal system, drawing on lived experience and years of community organising. She outlines 4FRONT's relational approach to safety and justice, exploring practices including violence de-escalation, conflict resolution, mediation, community accountability, safety planning, crisis support, advocacy and relationship-based support. Challenging conventional ideas of justice, the talk argues that achieving racial equity requires us to reimagine how we respond to harm by centering transformative justice, collective care and accountability. Preserved here is a public articulation of 4FRONT's philosophy and practice, capturing the ideas that shaped the organisation's approach to building safer communities beyond criminalisation.

Temi Mwale reflects on the realities of systemic racism and the limits of the criminal legal system.

Reimagining Justice

Documenting the impacts of racist gang profiling and surveillance in Grahame Park Estate.

My justice would be for the police to stop harassing me, just stop all of these searches...They shouldn’t just be harassing young Black people.

Published in 2025 by the #EraseTheDatabase Collective, DATABASED examines the impacts of racist "gang" profiling and surveillance on young people living on Grahame Park Estate. Drawing on in-depth interviews with 4FRONT members, lived experience testimony, Freedom of Information requests and policy analysis, the report documents how policing, local authorities and multi-agency data systems criminalised young people simply because of who they were, where they lived and who they knew. Preserved here is a collective record of the realities of racialised surveillance and a call to dismantle the systems that continue to reproduce harm under the guise of public safety.

DATABASED Report

DATABASED

Laying the foundations for an ecosystem designed to effectively address racial injustice and criminal legal system harm

Heart of the Hood

The transformation from harm to healing and towards racial justice will require a substantial and sustained investment over the long term.

The Harm to Healing Report was co-authored by 4FRONT Founder Temi Mwale and Dr Patrick Williams. Drawing on 4FRONT's experience alongside interviews with "by and for" organisations, the report maps the realities of communities working at the sharp end of criminalisation and demonstrates how, in the face of state harm and chronic disinvestment, they have built their own infrastructures of protection, care and justice. The report laid the foundations for what would become the Harm to Healing Seed Phase, a national collective of Black-led organisations working to strengthen community-led responses to harm. As a member of the Seed Phase Collective, 4FRONT helped shape a shared vision for moving beyond crisis response towards collective care, community infrastructure and self-determination. Preserved here is both a record of that emerging vision and an invitation to invest in the community-led systems that have long sustained Black communities.

Harm to Healing Report

Laying the foundations for an ecosystem designed to effectively address racial injustice and criminal legal system harm.

Celebrating the launch of HEART OF THE HOOD.

Erase the Database

People can honour and continue the values of 4FRONT, going forward, by fighting for what they really believe in and putting their soul into what they do.

This film captures the highlights from the official launch of HEART OF THE HOOD, a book created by the 4FRONT community to document more than a decade of community organising and healing. Featuring contributions from over 38 community members, the book brings together storytelling, poetry, conversation, reflection, portraiture, music and visual notes to preserve our philosophy of community, healing, (in)justice and freedom. This gathering became an act of collective remembrance and celebration - a moment to honour the people, relationships and experiences that shaped 4FRONT's journey. Preserved here is the spirit of the public launch of a work created so that our stories, our knowledge and our visions for the future cannot be erased, distorted or forgotten. 

HEART OF THE HOOD LAUNCH

Created by the 4FRONT community to document more than a decade of community organising and healing.

4FRONT ARCHIVE: DOCUMENTING THE LEGACY OF THE 4FRONT COMMUNITY'S WORK FOR PEACE, HEALING, SAFETY AND JUSTICE