In amongst all the excitement of the new coalition government, it’s important to still remember that much of Labour’s big brother legislation is still active. The awful Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (or RIPA), which sounds like it controls and limits the state’s ability to spy on us, actually empowers vast swathes of jobsworth prodnoses to covertly surveill us.

According to this survey, local authorities launch over eleven covert surveillance operations every day to spy on the untrustworthy British public. Our new coalition overlords have decreed that they will reign these powers in, “unless they are signed off by a magistrate and required for stopping serious crime.”

I would like to point out that we already have an organisation dedicated to stopping serious crime: it’s called “the police”. Since they already have these powers, I can’t see why councils should retain any powers under RIPA.

The current compromise objective is simply not good enough.

1
John Ward
June 1, 2010 at 14:47

Yes, it should be just the police; but the public (with good reason) do not generally trust the police to act on their behalf, so often in desperation they turn to other kinds of authority to do what’s necessary.

Councils provide Community Safety Wardens, the police provide diversity-ptrained pseudo social workers masquerading as police, and the “plastic fuzz” that are PCSOs.

To correct the situation, the first step has to be sorting out the police; and when they are doing their proper jobs again it should then be safe to remove the “safety net” of Council-provided community safety services, although there are other enforcement services that will still need some (more limited) residual powers.

It is a complex and somewhat entangled situation, and will take a lot of work to put right; but it can be done, given time and the right approach.

2
JohnRS
June 1, 2010 at 15:48

I agree, they have absolutely no part to play in monitoring the public and/or spying on us. If t’were me, I’d reduce councils to the very basics that are needed to keep the local area running – certainly no spying at all.

With an elected Police Commissioner to keep the plod on track sorting out real crime and not arresting photographers or mollycoddling criminals a lot of the Big Brother nonsense would go away.

3
JuliaM
June 1, 2010 at 17:27

“To correct the situation, the first step has to be sorting out the police…”

Seconded.

“If t

4
Plato
June 1, 2010 at 17:40

What Julia M said.

5
Catosays
June 1, 2010 at 17:51

The police definitely need sorting out. I served in London for nearly 30 years but the paperwork today has to be seen to be believed. There is also the question of discipline which today’s coppers sadly lack. When I left London, I worked as a Comms Op in Avon and Somerset. The coppers there were something different. They would question orders given by a sergeant or inspector and trying to get them to attend a crime was a work of art. If I hadn’t been already bald, then I surely would have been after 6 months of those idle sods.

But I digress. RIPA needs to be repealed. It has fallen into disregard and is, in my opinion, abused. It was not designed for the uses to which it is put nowadays in much the same way that the 1824 Vagrancy Act was not designed for the uses to which it was put….hence its repeal.

6
ivan
June 1, 2010 at 18:06

I agree with the idea of slimmed down councils and the repeal of RIPA.

As to the police, there is only one way they can be resuscitated – half of them at a time should be sent on a 6 month long retraining program of the old style. Those that fail are out, no come back at all.

There should be the removal of most of the CCTV infrastructure as well. It is of so little practical use – most of the images are useless at identifying any criminal, which is supposed to be the reason it’s there.

7
Joe Public
June 1, 2010 at 21:25

What we need is a De-Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (or DRIPA)

8
Kowalski
June 1, 2010 at 23:29

They say if you’re not doing anything wrong you’ve gone nothing to fear, unfortunately I caught painting “Fascist Scum” onto Llandudno’s Police Station.

9
Dave
June 2, 2010 at 14:02

Few seemed concerrned about this gross intrusion into the privacy of all of us. It’s as if the fuss about CCTV and Google Street View are red herrings used to divert us from this very real threat to privacy.
Apparently there are several hundred public bodies that to varying degrees access our electronic communications data. Google is a pussy cat by comparison.

10
Dave
June 2, 2010 at 14:05

“Nothing to hide, nothing to fear” I thought privacy was a fairly basic human right. Why bother having doors on toilets? Why not have all our medical records as accessible as the electoral roll? After all nothing to hide………..