Council spy cases hit 1,000 a month

[Morris Onions]

Torygraph...



More than 1,000 covert surveillance operations are being launched every month to investigate petty offences such as dog fouling, under-age smoking and breaches of planning regulations.

Councils and other public bodies are using legislation designed to combat terrorism in order to spy on people, obtain their telephone records and find out who they are emailing. The full extent to which local authorities take advantage of new powers given to them by the Government came to light after a Dorset council admitted spying for more than two weeks on a family it suspected of lying on a school application form.

Privacy campaigners said figures obtained by The Daily Telegraph showed the extent to which Britain has become a "surveillance state", and likened the tactics employed by councils to the Stasi secret police in the former East Germany.

Last year, councils and government departments made 12,494 applications for "directed surveillance", according to figures released by the Office of the Surveillance Commissioner. This was almost double the number for the previous year.

In contrast, applications from police and other law enforcement agencies fell during the same period, to about 19,000, and one local government body admitted that councils and other public bodies would soon carry out more surveillance than the police.

Councils are increasingly using the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 (Ripa) to investigate anything that can be classed as a criminal offence. The Home Office website describes the legislation as a tool for "preventing crime, including terrorism".

But it is used to spy on otherwise law-abiding people committing minor offences such as fly-tipping and failing to pick up dog mess and to gather evidence that can be used to instigate fines.

Keith Vaz, the Labour chairman of the Commons home affairs committee, said: "I am astonished that this very serious legislation is being misused in this way in cases which seem to be petty and vindictive. We have just completed an inquiry into the surveillance society and we have noted that there has been a huge growth in the use of these laws.

"The people responsible have some very serious questions to answer."

....

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/04/12/nspy112.xml

[moggie]

1. Incidentally, Poole Borough Council is Tory

The other councils the Torygraph names are NOC, with Labour having the most seats, but Labour have no seats in Poole.

[non sociopath skin]

2. But of course Young Dave's Gang are totally against ID cards ...

... until after the next election, anyway. :evilgrin:

The Skin

[Morris Onions]

3. you think they'll win?

:wow:

[non sociopath skin]

5. Who, the Tories?

Well, the opinion polls certainly seem to suggest that.

And I'm sure there'll be those urging "progressives" to vote for the "centrist Tories," eh, old chap? :evilgrin:

The Skin

[Morris Onions]

6. Not I.

[non sociopath skin]

7. Glad to hear it.

The Skin

[Briar]

4. I notice

someone pointed this out on the comments thread. This did not deter subsequent posters from asserting it was a consequence of voting Labour. This either tells us something about DT readers, or about Tories in general.