Friday - May 29, 2009

Town halls hire citizen snoopers as young as SEVEN to spy on neighbours and report wrongs.

H/T Argentium G. Tiger

BMEWs Tiger WOKE me up this morning with this article. I had something else but will post it later.
I don’t know how I missed this one and the date is a week ago.
I think the current political scandal re, the members of parliament scheming and leeching off the public has obscured much.
This type of thing came to light last year and caused a fuss and then died down.  So I thought everyone else forgot it cuz I sure did.

Look at the date of this story. Eleven days ago and not a peep anywhere that I heard.  I didn’t even see this in our local paper.  I guess that’s how the authorities can get away with it.

There is another side to this of course.  It sure looks bad enough and especially the way the Daily Mail wrote (and I copied) the headline.
There is a problem with what Brits call fly-tipping. Which is tossing trash at the side of roads or in fields.  I have seen it and trust me, it really does look bad.
And reporting genuine crime should be an act of good citizenship, I would think.
But I don’t quite understand how a council can come to the conclusion that someone has “put out too much rubbish” for pick up. That has me stumped. What if a family just has a lot? How much is too much?  And I can see as well, where the image of Big Brother comes into play.  You are always going to get some officious troll with a fraction of authority of some minor kind, sticking their unwanted nose into your legitimate business.  We’ve run into that sort of thing ourselves in the five years we’ve been here. But I guess recruiting kiddies too kinda smacks of the soviet system. Or Nazi Germany.
Catch em young enough to thoroughly train, and they’ll grow up accepting as normal behaviour the idea that ‘snooping’ on family and neighbors is simply the thing to do. 

By LUCY BALLINGER
Last updated at 1:16 AM on 18th May 2009

Children as young as seven are being recruited by councils to act as ‘citizen snoopers’, the Daily Mail can reveal.

The ‘environment volunteers’ will report on litter louts, noisy neighbours - and even families putting their rubbish out on the wrong day.

There are currently almost 9,000 people signed up to the schemes. More are likely to be recruited in the coming months.

Controversially, some councils are running ‘junior’ schemes which are recruiting children.

After basic training, volunteers are expected to be the ‘eyes and the ears’ of the town hall.

They are given information packs about how to collect evidence, including tips about writing down numberplates, which could later be used in criminal prosecutions.

Luton Borough Council’s Street Seen scheme encourages its 650 volunteers to report ‘environmental concerns’. It is also recruiting ‘Junior Street Champions’, aged between seven and 11.

Primary schools could also be involved within two years.

Similarly, Islington Council in north London has recruited 1,200 ‘Islington Eyes’ to report crime hotspots, fly-tipping and excess noise from DIY.

Volunteers are given a list of things to do when confronted with fly-tippers, including taking photos ‘without being seen’.

Last year the council undertook a recruitment drive for youngsters aged nine and above, called Junior Eyes.

Children are given special books to write down reports on littering or graffiti in their schools, which they then send to the council.

A spokesman for Islington town hall said: ‘It’s not possible for the council to see what’s going on in the borough at all times, so our Eyes for Islington are a great help, reporting issues such as dangerous footpaths, fly-tipping and graffiti.’

Welwyn Hatfield Council in Hertfordshire has given its 13 volunteers handheld computers to take photographs of problem areas.

The information is then uploaded to a map of trouble spots.

Overall, a total of 8,442 volunteers have signed up at 17 councils in England. Other councils are set to follow their example and set up their own networks of volunteers.

They say the scheme helps them find out about problems which they might not know about otherwise. But critics are worried the schemes could easily be abused and encourage a ‘Big Brother society’.

The move comes as local authorities dish out £100 fines to householders who leave out too much rubbish or fail to follow recycling rules.

Matthew Elliott, chief executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: ‘Community spirit is one thing, spying on your neighbours is quite another.

‘It is the job of the police to maintain law and order, and there is no reason taxpayers should have to pay twice for the same service.

‘People are sick and tired of being spied on by their councils and in a recession we simply cannot afford luxuries like handheld computers at a time when the most basic public services are being scaled back.’

The Welwyn and Hatfield scheme is run by waste collection and environmental contractor Serco, which hopes to recruit more volunteers this summer.

A spokesman for the council said: ‘Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council and its project partner Serco do not conduct any surveillance of residents in enforcement of environmental crimes, and neither do the community champions that have volunteered.’

Serco said other councils were keen to introduce its handheld computers, although many areas are conducting similar schemes using more low-tech methods.

For example, Hillingdon Borough Council in north London, which has recruited 4,800 volunteers from the age of 16 in the past 18 months, simply gives its ‘Street Champions’ pens and a folder of contact details.

A spokesman said: ‘Street Champions themselves have confirmed that it is not a scheme where people are asked to spy on neighbours. Street Champions are asked to act just as any other resident might to report issues in their local area.’

The spokesman added that two brothels had been closed down this year as a result of reports.

In North Devon, where trial schemes are currently under way, some of the volunteers have helped the police close down a drug den by giving witness statements.

However, the controversial pilot schemes have been dropped in a number of areas including Stoke -on-Trent in Staffordshire and Tower Hamlets in east London.

A spokesman for the Local Government Association said: ‘Environment volunteers are people who care passionately about their local area and want to protect it from vandals, graffitists and fly-tippers.

‘These community-spirited residents are not snoopers.

‘They help councils cut crime and make places cleaner, greener and safer.’

SNOOP SOURCE

Posted by peiper     on 05/29/2009 at 07:09 AM   
Filed Under: • Daily Life • Nanny State • UK •  
• Comments (4) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

DISCLAIMER

THE SERVICES AND MATERIALS ON THIS WEBSITE ARE PROVIDED "AS IS" AND THE HOSTS OF THIS SITE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMS ANY AND ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF SATISFACTORY QUALITY, MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, WITH RESPECT TO THE SERVICE OR ANY MATERIALS.

Not that very many people ever read this far down, but this blog was the creation of Allan Kelly and his friend Vilmar. Vilmar moved on to his own blog some time ago, and Allan ran this place alone until his sudden and unexpected death partway through 2006. We all miss him. A lot. Even though he is gone this site will always still be more than a little bit his. We who are left to carry on the BMEWS tradition owe him a great debt of gratitude, and we hope to be able to pay that back by following his last advice to us all:

1. Keep a firm grasp of Right and Wrong
2. Stay involved with government on every level and don't let those bastards get away with a thing
3. Use every legal means to defend yourself in the event of real internal trouble, and, most importantly:
4. Keep talking to each other, whether here or elsewhere

It's been a long strange trip without you Skipper, but thanks for pointing us in the right direction and giving us a swift kick in the behind to get us going. Keep lookin' down on us, will ya? Thanks.

THE INFORMATION AND OTHER CONTENTS OF THIS WEBSITE ARE DESIGNED TO COMPLY WITH THE LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. THIS WEBSITE SHALL BE GOVERNED BY AND CONSTRUED IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AND ALL PARTIES IRREVOCABLY SUBMIT TO THE JURISDICTION OF THE AMERICAN COURTS. IF ANYTHING ON THIS WEBSITE IS CONSTRUED AS BEING CONTRARY TO THE LAWS APPLICABLE IN ANY OTHER COUNTRY, THEN THIS WEBSITE IS NOT INTENDED TO BE ACCESSED BY PERSONS FROM THAT COUNTRY AND ANY PERSONS WHO ARE SUBJECT TO SUCH LAWS SHALL NOT BE ENTITLED TO USE OUR SERVICES UNLESS THEY CAN SATISFY US THAT SUCH USE WOULD BE LAWFUL.

Copyright © 2004-2015 Domain Owner