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Police obtain new surveillance cameras

Mike Wells | 12.05.2009 11:22 | Technology

At the same time Police have obtained new powers to stop the public and press photographing them, they have obtained a new means of filming the public.

Sherpa camera in Clerkenwell Green

Big Brother State?

The Met have bought 7 Sherpa remotely operated surveillance cameras. The cameras are unusual not only because they can beam their signal back to the Met’s cctv base by radio wave. But also because the £25,000 cameras can be deployed at short notice by two personnel, who attach the camera to the bottom of a lamppost which it then remotely climbs. The cameras have their own power supply, which gives them an operating time of 48 hours.

The Met is required to apply to local authorities for permission to operate these gadgets. The Met say no microphone is included in the machine. The Met’s press office comments …

“Within the context of public order policing the MPS uses these cameras to provide additional CCTV coverage for public events, where there are gaps within static CCTV coverage to allow command teams running the policing of events to monitor crowd safety and dynamics”.

The camera photographed was on a lamppost in Clerkenwell Green on Mayday (1st May 2009). I noticed it photographed it, then an hour or so later I found it had been removed.

The machines are made by Norton Integrated Systems Ltd.

Link to the manufactures website:

http://www.nortonsystems.co.uk/sherpa/

Mike Wells
e-mail: mikejwells@yahoo.com

Comments

Hide the following 9 comments

CCTV and the Olympics

12.05.2009 12:17

Thanks for bringing this to the attention...

In the government's CCTV strategy - it says 'The 2012 Olympics will present a significant opportunity for partner agencies to ‘join up’ their thinking in the positioning and networking of cameras across London and the UK.'

Ivan Agenda

Healh and safety concerns

12.05.2009 12:33

The cameras use a microwave link to send the images back to base and also to receive commands. Certain health risks, including cancer, have been associated with these frequencies. There is supposed to be a safe radius that people have to keep out of however there is no way to enforce this radius when it is positoned near houses. The main beam is directional but the side-lobes will enter nearby houses/offices.

HSE

here's an idea

12.05.2009 14:33

when it's up there stick a big fat cable tie or summat similar around the post as high as possible, stopping its descent, cops aren't allowed more than 6ft from the ground on their insurance.

not from london

What goes up... must come down.

12.05.2009 14:40

I bet a bit of oil and grease on the pole will have these spider cameras down and disabled in jiffy.

Sabotage

up north

12.05.2009 16:03

theirs a few of these up north already, has been for a while.
seen em in places like leeds

northen monkey

Car Tax vans with numberplate recognition?

12.05.2009 23:08

I saw a strange van driving round residential streets late the other night with what looked like cameras front and back pointing downwards. It had something written on the side, I only caught a glimpse but it appears to be for car tax enforcement - they just drive round automatically clocking the registration numbers to see if one isn't on their database.

So all you car tax dodgers out there, just make sure you park close enough to obstacles or subtly cover your registration somehow. They didn't appear to be doing manual checking.

Obviously they target poorer areas more since they are more likely to not pay car tax and also because they don't have off-road garages.

Also we have a fucking spy camera, not like the one above but similar to ones you sometimes see on motorways, in a residential street, looking right into people's windows.

I can't believe how fast Big Brother is becoming a reality. If you told us 10 years ago it was going to get like this most people would have laughed in your face. Now there is a kind of numb acceptance by most people.

anon

sab cams

13.05.2009 16:22

Anon - cameras looking direct into your window is a common thing on northern working class estates.

outside my flat there are 4 cameras within 100ft of each other. The houses round the back have one camera pointing at the bag doors, one pointing at the front door and one at the end of the street watching everyone who comes in.

anti-cam

'Road' cameras

14.05.2009 07:46

Drive down any motorway and you'll see directional road cameras at 180 degrees to the road. Some of this will be operators abusing their power for sexual kicks, some of it will be covert surveillance, but until the normal public learn to look out for it then it will continue.

Danny

re: anti-cam

15.05.2009 18:43

These cameras are on a southern council estate. I know that they have crept in over recent years but it just hits home when it is so close. The excuse was that kids were being naughty in the street, and it's true there were minor incidents of criminal damage, but I think these are just used as excuses for more Big Brother style control.

Strange how you never see them in posh areas, even if they do get occasional trouble.