A day and night of demonstration in Hackney over the councils massive overspend and imminent service cuts, once again saw the eyes of the law focusing their lens on a crowd of families, workers and residents. This increasing usage of videoing begs a question. What actually happens to the film, once the instruments and banners have been packed away and everyone has gone home?

The decision on weather to film a protest or not, is in the hands of the Superintendent in charge of the operation. It is also this person’s responsibility to decide weather or not the film should be kept or erased. According to Scotland Yard "There isn’t enough storage space to hold all films." However should the film be kept, they said "The police have to fill out a form, explaining the reasons why they want the film to be kept". This would then be passed onto a Technical Support Unit, one of which each force has. They would then edit the tape and take stills. If it were then ‘necessary’, the footage would be passed on to an
Evidence Gathering Team. According to a spokesperson of the Data Protection Commission:"The film would be kept for "No longer than it's needed."

The Data Protection Act 1998 (D.P.A.) came into force in March 2000. This allowed anyone filmed to a copy of the tape. Along with this, the recipient ‘should receive a description of the purposes for which they are being processed and to whom they may be disclosed to’. Should you then wish to obtain a copy of the film there are several steps you need to follow. Firstly you would need to get the number and station of the specially trained police officer
(otherwise known as a ‘spotter’) and then note down the date, time and location of the filming. Right! That’s the easy part.

The next step, was recently put to the test by Mark Thomas and Undercurrents and it was, as they found out not as simple and certainly a little more concerning. It took them six weeks, four various police departments, three separate forces, five letters and lots of phone calls before they even received a questionnaire to fill in. The next step was to tell them your name, height, sex, date and place of birth, all your past addresses and a referee including
their details, plus believe it or not your passport. For this privilege you are asked to pay a fee of £10. Bargain! For according to the Data Protection Commissioner "It could cost anything up to £50." All this is rather interesting as the statement for the recent advertising campaign for the D.P.A. reads "The aim of the campaign is to empower the
individual to use the law to protect their information."

Even if you’ve complied with all the initial steps there are no guarantee’s you’ll actually get the tape, as within the D.P.A. there are several excemptions. In amongst them are, if a film is to be used in the 'detection or prevention of crime' and if it’s required for the purpose of you guessed it ‘national security’, this also would mean it would also remain on someone’s shelf.

Scotland Yard was pressed further on the nature of the filming and asked weather the use of videoing at demonstrations is used as intimidation, they said. "It is not our policy to intimidate the crowd, the camera’s are used for intelligence not intimidation."

However Liberty the Human Rights organisation stated "Liberty is concerned about the police filming demonstrations. It intimidates people and discourages them from exercising there right to demonstrate." They also expressed the practice may raise issues under articles 10
and 11 of the European Convention of Human Rights Act 1998 which has just come into force on the 2nd of October 2000.

If you desire a copy of the film from Hackney Coucil protest send a letter stating the time, date, location and reason to: Data Protection Officer
New Scotland Yard
Broadway
London
SW1H 0BG