
Unmarked surveillance vehicles in Central London - MaysonL
http://www.jgc.org/blog/2009/08/unmarked-surveillance-vehicles-in.html
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wildjim
I think this was semi-confirmed by a London paper recently as council parking
surveillance vehicles; several defendants in a parking-fine case successfully
got their fines overturned as there were no signs nearby warning of CCTV or
Traffic Cameras, etc.

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jzdziarski
John,

I'm surprised this surprises you. Egregious violations of freedom and privacy
have been going on in the UK for years now. This is just another step towards
a full-on totalitarian form of government. It's time the UK broke into civil
war, or at least blew some shit up, and put an end to the corrupt government's
stronghold on their rights.

That's just my opinion, speaking as someone who only sees the UK from an
outsider's perspective. The US states are likely to tolerate much less before
throwing a fit...at least I hope.

~~~
jgrahamc
I've been away from the UK for 15 years. Many things have changed in that
time. It doesn't surprise me, but it upsets me.

~~~
JabavuAdams
How is this being sold to the UK public, or are they just oblivious? I keep
reading these articles, and they don't seem to match my foreigner's (Canadian)
conception of the UK. It seems very strange and not-British to me. What are
your thoughts?

~~~
axod
As an Englishman, it actually pisses me off a little to see the persistent
stories on Reddit etc ranting about how many cameras there are in the UK and
how we're all being monitored etc etc etc.

Look at this 'story' - It's basically "There's some vans around with cameras
on, I don't know what they are". That's seriously not newsworthy, or worrying
in the least. Who cares? really...

It's just FUD. Shop owners all bought CCTV systems in the 80s to protect
against theft. They're usually hooked up to a video tape cycling through.
Additionally, we have tons of speed cameras for cars, and now the congestion
charge cameras in London.

The reality is pretty boring. Pretty much everyone in the UK is against speed
cameras, but they make a lot of money :/

Why would the government monitor civilians, when they can monitor _cars_ and
make money out of people speeding/parking wrongly/etc etc

~~~
electromagnetic
Well the mere fact that they spend so much time, and make money to
artificially lower taxes is what's disturbing. Every pound that they make
isn't being given to them through a government budget, essentially turning
them into a semi-private organisation as they no longer have public safety in
mind, they have profit in mind.

That's been evident for a long time in the UK. I grew up in a small town, and
even there you could rely on seeing a few cops that were always helpful, but
that's since gone. I haven't seen an officer on the street for over 5 years
yet the number of speed cameras in the area has gone through the roof. I don't
really see how this is making me as a civilian safer, because cops who watched
the side walks have been replaced with cameras that watch the roads.

