Am I being watched?

A number of people have asked questions about the surveillance that is carried out by City Council Officers on members of the public under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act, and our Lib Dem colleague representing Barton, Chris Scanlan, has been pressing for a statement on this.  I thought you might be interested in this response from the appropriate officer in the Legal and Democratic Services department:

For your information the Council has authorised directed surveillance on 24 occasions since the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 (RIPA) came into force. The Act came into force in October 2000. Of those 24 authorisations 6 related to benefit fraud investigations, 13 related to anti-social behaviour/crime & disorder investigations and 5 related to internal disciplinary investigations.

None of the above include investigations into littering, dog fouling or any of the other minor offences, which have made the press in recent months. Over a period of 8 years I think it is fair to say that the Council has used these powers very sparingly.

Under the Council’s current RIPA policy and procedure (which is available on the Council’s website) I receive a copy of each authorisation. If I felt that the Act was being used inappropriately or that the ‘necessity and proportionality’ test had not been applied then I would intervene and require the investigating officer and the authorising officer to justify their actions.

If you have any queries or concerns about this, just hit the Comment? button or email David or me directly (see Contact us in left hand tool bar for details). 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *