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Britain Investigates Noisy Kids Under New Terror Laws

by Emilio Lizardo | September 7, 2008 at 01:58 pm | 307 views | 13 comments | 27 recommendations

Brittain Investigates Noisy Kids Under New Terror Laws

Not suprisingly, British law enforcement has taken the path of least resistance by using the increased police powers of recent anti-terrorism legislation to tighten the screws down on such incorrigibles as noisy kids and folks who walk their dogs without using pooper-scoopers.

Anti-terrorism laws used to spy on noisy children
Last Updated: 10:40PM BST 06 Sep 2008
Councils are using anti-terrorism laws to spy on residents and tackle barking dogs and noisy children.

An investigation by The Sunday Telegraph found that three quarters of local authorities have used the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) 2000 over the past year.

The Act gives councils the right to place residents and businesses under surveillance, trace telephone and email accounts and even send staff on undercover missions.

The findings alarmed civil liberties campaigners. Shami Chakrabarti, the director of Liberty, said: "Councils do a grave disservice to professional policing by using serious surveillance against litterbugs instead of terrorists."

The RIPA was introduced to help fight terrorism and crime. But a series of extensions, first authorised by David Blunkett in 2003, mean that Britain's 474 councils can use the law to tackle minor misdemeanours.

Councils are using the Act to tackle dog fouling, the unauthorised sale of pizzas and the abuse of the blue badge scheme for disabled drivers.

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Jennings David L

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 14:47 on September 7th, 2008

Emilio Lizardo, I like this story. It's good stuff. Good story to point out how government can interpret the laws to their advantage.

Emilio Lizardo

at 14:56 on September 7th, 2008

On the one hand you almost can't blame them for taking the easier, softer way ... but, then on the other hand, you'd almost expect them to have a little more sense in making decisions which end them up with egg on their faces ...

Thanks for flag and comment.

mchawk

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 14:51 on September 7th, 2008

Emilio Lizardo, I like this story. It's good stuff.

...because with all the knife-crime that we've got going on, we really should be spending more time getting those dog-walking, pizza selling, illegal parkers.

I'm not overly concerned about this being a grotesque invasion of privacy - it'll all come out into the open as the data collected from the misuse of this law will no doubt be found on an abandoned laptop on a commuter train in a few months time.

Emilio Lizardo

at 15:03 on September 7th, 2008

So true ... and so pathetic that they go for a little positive press coverage by surveiling delinquent kids ... pathetic also that we, as regular folks tend to eat it up ...

All this madness really tells us about who we all are as a culture ... and the picture ain't pretty, is it ?

Finally, the Russian and Chinese hackers probably already have all the information anyway, intercepted no doubt from one of the endless wireless coffee shop zones where people everywhere now sip their lattes while clicking on their laptops ...

Thanks for comments and flag!

rahul

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 16:57 on September 7th, 2008

Emilio Lizardo, It seems this is getting out of hand. I like this story as it depicts paranoic tactics and authority excesses. It's good stuff.

Emilio Lizardo

at 17:40 on September 7th, 2008

Of course the police, like everything else in the universe, are going to take the path of least resistance - if the Terror Laws make it easier for them to do their jobs, then why not use them ?

In my mind the fault lies not at all with the police but elsewhere ...

Should we blame government ? Maybe ... but, when I think about it, I have to ask myself - 'who's really asleep at the wheel?'