Community Protection Officers (Warden). These are Nottingham City Council employees. Jointly funded by Nottingham City Council and Nottinghamshire Police. They have now replaced City Centre Wardens, Street Wardens, & Neighbourhood Wardens. They are under the direction of the Services Director for Community Safety, & Community Neighbourhood Protection Service of Nottingham City Council.
CPO's & PCSO's are 'badged' under the Community Safety Accreditation Schemes enable Chief Constables to designate limited powers to employees of organisations who contribute towards community safety. Accredited Persons (APs) are identified by a standardised badge.
The services are now developing Rapid Response Units (RRU) and in various pilots are now running experiments using video equipment mounted on the officers hat [HeadCam], thus making video recording [and audio] of a scene, designed they say, to deter anti-social behaviour and provide evidence suitable for prosecution in court, Evidence Gathering. Additionally of course, intelligence gathering.
People have noted that both CPO's & PCSO's not only have much reduced powers, compared to police officers, but also have a much more limited standard of training and are frequently unsure as to the extent of their powers!
As an example, check out this short video:
Current TV [Google Channel] You Can’t Picture This, Oh yes you can!
http://current.com/items/88856223_you_can_t_picture_this
Their objective is policing on the cheap. [half-coppers, plastic policemen etc] The Police Federation is also against their introduction since they would obviously want more police. Also, sometimes they can create situations that 'proper' policemen are required to clear up the mess afterwards.
The council website says that they are to: "deal with a wide range of anti-social behaviour issues such fly tipping, graffiti, vandalism, fireworks, joy riding, quad bikes, abandoned cars etc." However, many activists feel that they frequently come into contact with these guys, while involved in lawful action and protest etc. exceeding their authority.
I have had an interest in watching the progress of these non-warranted officers for some time now. But I post this lot now because of their presence at the protest in the Market Square against the detention and imminent deportation of Amdani Juma, held on Monday 2nd June
Community Protection :: Protecting Nottingham’s communities
http://www.nottinghamcity.gov.uk/sitemap/services/policing_and_public_safety/communityprotectionofficers.htm
Neighbourhood Renewal Unit
http://www.neighbourhood.gov.uk/page.asp?id=567
Community Protection Officers - Job description
http://www.nottinghamcity.gov.uk/community_protection_officer_job_description.
PCSOs are not police officers and they do not have the same powers, but they are employees of Nottinghamshire Police, they wear a uniform,
Police community support officers (PCSOs) Nottinghamshire Police
http://www.nottinghamshire.police.uk/jobs/police_staff/police_community_support_officers_pcsos/
List of PCSO designated powers (pdf, 23kb)
http://www.nottinghamshire.police.uk/uploads/library/224/PCSO%20designated%20powers.pdf
Accreditation Schemes - Home Office
http://police.homeoffice.gov.uk/police-reform/reform-programme/citizen-focus/community-safety-accredit-scheme
____________________________________________
ALAN LODGE
Photographer - Media: One Eye on the Road. Nottingham. UK
Email: tash@indymedia.org
Member of the National Union of Journalists [No: 014345]
____________________________________________
"It is not enough to curse the darkness.
It is also necessary to light a lamp!!"
___________________________________________
we paid for your hats
04.06.2008 11:12
We paid for your hats
We paid for your hats
What a waste of Council tax
We paid for your hats
and end with repeated chants of
Two hats
Two hats
Two hats
see example at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCXHbCYvzjI
Who's up for choir practice in the Market Square then!
Harry
Songs
04.06.2008 13:39
The Goose
e-mail: sotf@gmail.com
£900 Robocam used to film anti-social behaviour
04.06.2008 15:30
http://www.securizine.com/pages/EquipmentJan05.html
Robocam Arrives in Northampton
Police in Northampton are all set to use a mini head camera to record alcohol-related disorder and other nuisance across the town.
The head cam or 'Robocam', as it is officially called, has been bought for Northampton Police at a cost of £900 by Northampton Community Safety Partnership.
Following a successful trial of a similar head cam, which was loaned to officers last summer, Police in Northampton are pleased to now have a permanent and even smaller camera which fits neatly under a police helmet and records excellent images of evidential quality.
PC Dave Bryan, of Northampton Police Community Safety Unit, said: ‘The Robocam will be used to film anti-social behaviour, including alcohol-related disorder, and may be used as evidence in any objections we may have against new premises alcohol licenses or extensions to a troublesome pub or club's licensed hours, for example.
‘The head cam is also likely to be used during drug warrants and in closures of crack houses as another tool to assist in the fight against crime.
Police have been using conventional video cameras to gather evidence of anti-social behaviour for some time but the head cam has the advantage of leaving officers' hands free and their vision unrestricted so that they can continue with their normal duties while fitted with the camera.
Bill Edwards, Manager of Northampton Community Safety Partnership, said: ‘Northampton Community Safety Partnership is committed to supporting the Police and its partners in developing and implementing effective and intuitive crime and anti social behaviour reduction activities. This camera is another tool which will allow us to achieve our aims.’
Dan
Solihull
04.06.2008 15:51
It looks like they have newer cameras than the Robocam website photos suggest. Looking for an obvious weakness, it stops recording if you pull the plug out.
User Manual
http://www.robocamuk.com/downloads/instruction.pdf
"If you are near or involved in an incident take care to avoid being struck on the ear to which the earpiece is inserted"
£995.00 + VAT
RC001 Complete Kit
Police specification secure software for evidence capture (meeting and exceeding UK home office guidelines)
High resolution 720 x 576 (DVD quality), highest resolution portable hard drive DVR
Rugged user friendly remote control
Wide angle camera (110 degrees peripheral vision)
Helmet clips compatible with various helmets and hats
Email: info@robocamuk.com
692 Warwick Road
Solihull
West Midlands
B91 3DX
United Kingdom
Telephone: 0121 705 4837
Facsimile: 0121 711 2600
Dan
Not the 1st time
04.06.2008 16:01
Nottingham Animal Rights
Homepage: http://myspace.com/nottinghamanimalrights
Fairness for all
05.06.2008 02:50
But what exactly was the need to take so many pictures of the guy with the camera on his hat, you obviously felt he warranted more attention than the actual reason that everyone was there.
And you obviously don't need permission to take pictures where you like in public, but did you ask him if he didn't mind you splashing them all over the internet?
I would have thought that in itself is a breech of privacy.
My old man was a cop for his sins, and that in itself could cause problems as we lived close to where he used to patrol, but keeping himself to himself and advertising the fact ensured we didn't get any backlash from others.
Did you think about that guys family before you sent it out around the world?
We should have the freedom to take pictures where we like, but we should also have a responsibility to the people we take pictures of, we are all humans at the end of the day and no matter what your job, you should be able to step out of it at the end of the day.
You never know, there may be a bit more trust built up if people didn't go sneaking around.
Robert Greenman
e-mail: vampyre@realvamp.zzn.com
brakka brakka!
05.06.2008 08:52
What a moustache!
yute dem gwaan
Fairness?
05.06.2008 09:02
"You obviously felt he warranted more attention than the actual reason that everyone was there."
Bzzzt wrong! See Tash's other post: http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/06/400121.html
"Did you ask him if he didn't mind you splashing them all over the internet?"
Do the FIT (Forward "Intelligence" Team) ever ask us if we mind having our photos taken continuously and being shared around the country between them and their fascist mates, or if they can call us by our first names from across the street, or if they can follow us home? NO. These cops and wannabe unwarranted cops who bring surveillance equipment along to situations that under no circumstances need it (such as a peaceful protest) serve one purpose alone, and that is to intimidate people into not protesting in future. Quite frankly, we MUST photograph and video them relentlessly and put their faces all over the web, in order to make being the camera cop completely undesirable, so that none of them want to do it (in theory, though there's always another fascist, sucker or wannabe "Robocop" in waiting).
The police filming us all the time (with no cause whatsoever) is a breach of our privacy, of civil liberties, and is a deliberate intimidation tactic. Furthermore, there's no such excuse as "just doing my job", according to the Nuremburg trials.
"My old man was a cop for his sins"
Nuff said. My old man worked for a bank, and I make no excuses for that whatsoever. A pure evil institution (although actually, it's one of the ones that scores highest "ethically" these days, but still a filthy bank we're talking about). We can love our parents and still be frank that we detest what they do for a living, and know that our entire childhood was paid for by dirty money. Sounds like you and me are in the same boat there. We can't change our backgrounds, but we don't have to make excuses for them either.
"Did you think about that guys family before you sent it out around the world?"
Your point? Did he think about Amdani Juma before turning up to repress the people who consider him a brother? Hardly! He's "just doing his job" filming peaceful protesters (and providing his overlords with the footage for "evidence" of things like "who the trouble makers are").
"We should have the freedom to take pictures where we like, but we should also have a responsibility to the people we take pictures of, we are all humans at the end of the day and no matter what your job, you should be able to step out of it at the end of the day."
Aww how lovely and fluffy your world must be, where cops and protesters dance hand in hand with each other and where the state is nice and friendly and always acts responsibly and transparently, with our best interests at heart and full accountability for anything we're not happy with. Meanwhile, back on planet Earth...
If you're human then be human, and don't become a cop with a camera strapped to your head who goes filming peaceful protesters without any justification!
Cops are the employees of the state and are routinely used to repress the population - they should be afraid to step out because they betray every single one of us by their very existence.
"You never know, there may be a bit more trust built up if people didn't go sneaking around."
Trust? Oh that'll be trust with the same police who tell you that if you unlock by a certain time, they won't arrest you (and then do)? Or the same police who jump out of riot vans all masked up and with their numbers hidden like some kind of armed response unit simply because you've tried to walk towards the offices of a climate criminal? Or those same shitbags who knock a middle-aged man over and he ends up in hospital with a broken hip, in pain and struggling to walk for months, simply because he was standing on the pavement and they felt like roughing him up a bit? Or those same traitors who turn out to protect the meetings of fascists like the BNP so they can continue to incite the racial violence which destroys communities? Or those same bastards who show up in their hundreds to protect arms dealers from the public? Or those same arseholes who arrest protesters under false pretence and then release them without charge hours later just to silence their protest and get them off the street? Or those same fascists who are only too happy to use and abuse every stinking new power handed to them by an increasingly and transparently authoritarian state? Or those same pathological bullies who have for decades intimidated and beaten up miners, hippies, peace protesters, rights campaigners, students, free party goers, travellers, blacks, asians, anyone with an Irish accent, gays, environmental campaigners, animal rights campaigners, socialists, communists, anarchists or just about anyone who has so much as dared to stand up for any sort of real democracy anywhere in the world?
They've got away with murdering innocent people on numerous occasions (I hardly need to name names) and distorting the evidence to make prosecution impossible, and have even been known to do lovely things like taser someone who fell into a coma while sat on the bus.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/west_yorkshire/7096456.stm
Them? (And their buddies at the IPCC who wouldn't say "boo" to a goose?)
Yet you seriously think we should try to build trust with the willing boot boys of the state, who routinely abuse their monopoly on violence to repress the public, and go home with a tidy sum in their pocket for their troubles?
Well, nobody asked me if I wanted to pay a bunch of fascist bully pigs to be my personal oppression service, thanks. I wouldn't trust a cop further than I could throw them - and looking at the girth of many of them, that's gonna be about 3 feet tops!
Stick your head above the parapet and go to a few protests and direct actions, and maybe one day you will understand. The police are not and can never be our friends - by definition of their job description, and by virtue of who they work for.
That some of them clearly get off on knowingly and repeatedly infringing our supposed "rights" in the name of the state is the final insult. These kind of people would have been the first in line to "uphold the law" by turning on the gas taps at Auschwitz, and they still would be if such a thing ever happened again.
A Notts FITWatcher
Close-ups of new equipment are always useful
05.06.2008 15:53
It is hard to claim animal cruelty when the pig is obviously enjoying himself being photographed, and when he is obviously enjoying photographing others. I've never seen a smirk overpower a moustache before, this is one happy copper - or a male model hired by the company to promote the kit. Seriously, how can you justify complaining about a FIT cop getting photographed without condemning his photographing peaceful protestors for no reason ?
Oh, before an indignant Dailt Mail reader accuses me of demeaning cops, most cops I know refer to other cops as 'pigs', they know the score. If someone invents an insult for you, then adopt it yourself. 'All cops are bastards, but not all bastards are cops'.
D
He is a cop, he isnt BNP, dont waste that word!,BNP are fascist!
05.06.2008 16:27
Some people in government though like Bush & Blair& corporations they work for like Exxon mobil are physcopaths& criminally insane who need locking up.
I have seen police attack people, but worth remembering that although indymedia types were stopping nazis from the start in Spain in 1930s etc, the British state did eventually join in to stop them too, however hashed it was in the start with M16 originally helping Franco.
James
You have way to much time on your hands.
24.06.2009 01:02
I hope you never need them for something and if you do i hope they cant help you.
B