Camden RIPA-off

Camden Town Council has more than quadrupled its surveillance of local residents since the introduction of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA).

While the Act allows for the interception of communications and the use of covert human intelligence sources to prevent crime, including terrorism, it appears that Camden Council are using this legislation to spy on low-level offences, such as dog fouling, littering and checking whether or not a child lives in a certain catchment area.

Admittedly, Camden is the haunt of some of the most loathsome Untermensch that inhabit this fair city, from strutting, skinny-jeaned new media types to coin-eyed rip-off merchants selling “legal highs”.

But while I personally would be glad to sweep this whole swathe of faux-bohemia into the Regent’s Canal, I grudgingly have to admit that, owing to a loophole in the law, these people have the right to exist without being persecuted by the local council.

Of course, if the police and security services have reasonable grounds to suspect someone of planning a terrorist operation, that’d be a great time to start tapping the phones. But if you think that someone is mis-using a disabled parking badge, I would suggest that surveillance is both disproportionate and a fatuous waste of time and money.