Mobile CCTV deployment in UK

I'm not the biggest fan of CCTV as many of you will know who have read my previous threads.

On Friday night I think I encountered the biggest invasion of privacy by this kind of tech I have experienced so far!

The police now have mobile CCTV vans! I'm not talking about a van that cruises around looking for number plates - or something they can deploy at music festivals etc etc... this is scary - something of a mobile CCTV command centre with about 5 cameras on masts - operatives inside - and no doubt the ability to cross reference people's faces with the national database they now keep.

There was a brief scuffle with the doormen outside the club I was partying at - and then this thing pulled up and deployed outside. Everyone entering or leaving the club - or indeed smoking outside was now being monitored.

My girlfriend doesn't know I smoke - I don't want to be recorded doing so - and seeing as I'm doing nothing illegal - isn't that my right?

I can see the need maybe for something like this at a sensitive or volatile event like a music festival or politial rally (although even those are questionable)... but because there was a fight outside a nightclub??? Geees...

I'm personally really unhappy at the way things are going in the UK. I was even more humiliated to speak to a South African who was laughing about the whole thing saying if this happened where he was from people would go outside and rip it apart.

UK people need to stand up now.

Man its alot worse than you think. There s virtually no such thing as privacy in uk now, and i mean no such thing.

Unless your a beast and on there side, this garbage will eat up any ordinary person, just living there lifes.

Hello,
Seen lots of these vans in my local park, nothing new and the occupants looked far more scared than anyone outside it, we are CCTV nation, it's not going away.

You're not going to win support of the public through riots or violence, you will be branded a "militant/terrorist" and subject to the dodgy laws in statute for the last few years.

Originally posted by Dutty_Rag
I'm not the biggest fan of CCTV as many of you will know who have read my previous threads.

On Friday night I think I encountered the biggest invasion of privacy by this kind of tech I have experienced so far!

The police now have mobile CCTV vans! I'm not talking about a van that cruises around looking for number plates - or something they can deploy at music festivals etc etc... this is scary - something of a mobile CCTV command centre with about 5 cameras on masts - operatives inside - and no doubt the ability to cross reference people's faces with the national database they now keep.

Ha! I thought this was an old thread or something, then I saw the date, and then I saw your location. This has been happening in the big English towns and cities for quite a long time. I live in a town between Manchester and the Pennines and see one of these a lot in my town.

However, this may give you some pause and levity, one of the first times I saw one, I noticed it had been vandalised by someone with a big magic marker. Perhaps Plod fancied a nice snooze after his Greggs pasties?

These vans have been around for ages, i go up to Leeds a lot and they are always hanging about the city and it's outskirts.

You tend to see them where kids gather a lot.

I usualy just smile and wave.

CX.

It's getting this way in the US, too. You pretty much have to assume that whenever you're outside, you are on camera. It stinks, and I hate it, but I don't think there's much you can do about it. Welcome to the panopticon- we are all living in it now. The one thing to bear in mind about being on camera is that there are a lot more cameras than there are people to watch them.

Agreed. Where I now live in London my home is flanked on all 4 sides by 6 - YES SIX - camera's. My local area must have over 100 - and that isn't an exaggeration.

I can't leave my home without the cameras twitching and whirring as some jobs-worth takes a look to make sure I'm not a terrorist or baby raper.

I feel violated every time I go to the shops to buy some more toilet paper or wieners or something.

A few weeks ago I posted on here when I was coming home late and the police stopped me and tried to imply I was looking for a prostitute - just because I'd been 'tracked' (there word not mine) on CCTV walking through the area. An area I happen to live in! WTF! I'd never felt so grubby.

What the hell is this all about and when does it end.

In interesting other news this week: a large number of government databases - including the 'DNA database' were ruled illegal under European law... So my question is - why the hell haven't they been closed down and deleted immediately?

Well it's the G20 thing next week. I personally won't be causing any trouble as I unfortunately won't be in London at the time.

I do look forward to those who are brave enough to stand up telling the government what they really think - within the law of course (well the PROPER laws that we all should respect - not the ridiculous police state crap).