RIPA used to spy on family
The latest case councils spying on the general public has been conducted by Poole local Council. In this case Poole county council organized covert surveillance and covert following of a family, to try an ascertain if their child should go to a particular school.
Below is the log created by Poole County Council during the surveillance.
At which point will the councils think that hiring “private detectives” to follow young mothers and children around is a not good idea? We know that CCTV operators have misused their powers on several occasions, why would the people conducting this surveillance behave any better? Would you like your child to and wife to be followed by a low paid, unqualified individual, with no career path, nothing to lose, and a voyeuristic interest?
The councils get the authority to spy on the public by using a law called “RIPA - the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act. This law was originally designed “for using methods of surveillance and information gathering to help the prevention of crime, including terrorism“. However, more and more it has being used for minor offences
In Poole, the local council who authorized the surveillance of a family, have stuck by their decision, despite the application of RIPA being an incredibly heavy handed and disproportionate approach to dealing a child’s application. Tim Martin, Head of Borough of Poole’s Legal and Democratic Service stated that “The council is committed to investigating the small minority of people who attempt to break the law and affect the quality of life for the majority of law-abiding residents in Poole. On a small number of occasions, RIPA procedures have been used to investigate potentially fraudulent applications for school places. In such circumstances, we have considered it appropriate to treat the matter as a potential criminal matter.”
From this we can that not only do they think its ok, but they have done it before and will do it again
While the Tim Martin may have thought this at the time he may now be forced to retract this. The Local Government Association chairman Sir Simon Milton has written to councils warning of overzealous use of the powers could alienate the public and their use could be disproportionate.