Well, nearly all of us. One in 78 apparently.

Official bodies made a shocking 504,073 requests last year to have covert surveillance carried out on people. That’s one person every minute who will have their phone calls, email accounts and activities monitored without their knowledge. the law that is used to enforce this surveillance was originally set up to observe terror suspects but is now being used to spy on us for all sorts of reasons from storing petrol without a licence to bringing unquarantined animals into the country. Read the rest of this entry »

It is claimed that the Royal family cost the British taxpayer less than £1 a year to support, per person. Whether or not this is accurate is difficult to say as figures are blurred but a portion of this goes on their close protection and can we really begrudge them this if we wish to continue with the instiution? Kate Middleton, suspected future wife of Prince William has recently been allocated some personal close protection whilst skiing in Klosters, further fuelling speculation that an engagement announcement is imminent. Read the rest of this entry »

Covert surveillance comes in many forms: from physically watching and monitoring persons and behaviour to gathering intelligence on idividuals and organisations from whatever means possible.

A popular means of gathering formerly hidden information is the online resource of WikiLeaks. This site aims to publicise leaked material that they believe will be of public interest. This will cover Governmental and influential organisational activity around the globe (WikiLeaks were the first resource to reveal the helicopter gunship video of US military attacking civilians in Iraq). Hand in hand with leaking sensitive material is protecting the anonymity of the informant. Read the rest of this entry »

Covert Surveillance with NiteDevil Cameras

The latest installation of covert surveillance cameras tested the latest NiteDevil night time surveillance cameras.

location was the UK and the primary goal was to get 24/7 surveillance on a particular target, the cameras were installed as part of a “building maintenance” cover and were then “Cammed Up”  so they were completely covert.

Even the neighbours were not aware of the deployment, the target merchandise was worth £65k and the threat was between the hours of darkness. Images were sent to a 30 day recorder that saved the data to hard drive with a 9 inch digital monitor. Laptop functionality was enabled for easy edit and the setup was on permanent record. Read the rest of this entry »

World Cup Security – South Africa 2010 Close Protection News

There is unprecendented demand for close protection and body guard services in the lead up to the 2010 World Cup.

With South Africa having such a high and fast rising crime rate and especially with violent crime top of the list there is now a stampede for services offered by security agencies. Many of the top agencies are now close to capacity and even some high networth individuals are being turned down and are having to look further for their needs.

Remembering that there is now a mix of these people that encompasses celebrities, industrialists, government officials, sports stars and that they come from a wide range of countries the demand is at a level that it is becoming hard to meet.

Into this is the growing threat of terrorism and its easy tounderstand that the close protection agencies are operating beyond normal capacity.

Well connected agencies such as Robin Hood Solutions are able to draw on their networks to continue meeting demand so if you need more information then please call them on – 07565 490210

Chicago, USA, contains crime hot-spots that law enforcement officials want to eradicate. With this in mind, they installed surveillance cameras all over the city. With hundreds of these ‘blue-light’ cameras erected, many criminals were caught in the act. Quickly becoming wise to the presence of these police cameras the drug dealers and other criminals simply moved to a different area to carry out their activities and the surveillance is no longer as effective as hoped.

Stepping up to this problem, authorities are now looking to change some of these cameras to covert surveillance cameras. The aim is to use the high tech abilities of this equipment to trap the wrong doers in Chicago society and clean up the streets. Read the rest of this entry »

If personal security is one of your top priorities, you could do worse than look at the trend of criminals in your residential surroundings.

According to reports out today, Greater Manchester and London have the highest numbers of prolific offenders in the country. To be classed as ‘prolific’ the offender must have carried out more than six acts of criminal activity in teh last year and be causing widespread misery. More than a thousand criminals living in these areas are repeat offenders and still at liberty. Surely this says something about the justice system and internal security in our country?

To highlight the problem, offender Stuart McCormick is being held up as an example. After finally being jailed for burglary he then decided to own up to over 500 other crimes that it has taken the police a year to verify.

Up and down the country, criminals re-offending is becoming a huge issue. The Home Office have rolled out programmes to offenders such as intense supervision as well as working with other authorities to try to rehabilitate repeat offenders. Something tells me it’s not working!

Not only are the general public being repeatedly subjected to the violence and theft of these people but we also suffer higher insurance premiums if we live in a known area for repeat offenders. It is widely known that many of these repeat offenders are driven by living drug fuelled lives – maybe it is this aspect that needs addressing?

However, if you want to keep your family and yourself as safe as possible, move to Wiltshire. This has the lowest amount of repeat offenders in the country and will come with lower household insurance premiums as a result.

Amid all the confusion that has surrounded the security of five year old British boy, Sahil Saeed, his family say he has been released from his captors and is now thought to be in the care of local police in Pakistan before he heads home.

The kidnap case came to light on March 3rd when, at the end of a holiday in Pakistan with his father, the pair were preparing to fly home to Manchester. Armed robbers broke into the house where Sahil was staying and reportedly subjected the family to an ordeal lasting six hours before they disappeared with Sahil the following morning, demanding a ransom of £100,000 for his safe return. On the same day, a man is arrested in connection with the kidnapping and Sahil’s mopther pleads for his release, saying the family cannot afford the ransom.

By the following day, Pakistani police are investigating several suspects but rumours of the family being involved are strongly denied by them. March 6th and Pakistani prime minister, Yousuf Raza Gilani, claims the government is doing all they can to find the boy.

Despite the boys father being asked to stay in Pakistan as a witness, he returned to his family in Olham on March 8th.

The confusion begins on March 11th when the British Government receive conflicting reports that the boy has been found and then that the search continues. It wasn’t until today that the British High Commission in Islamabad confirmed Sahil has been found safe and well.

There is debate about whether the ransom was paid, some suggesting that Sahil’s father paid the ransom from a third country, others declaring no ransom has been paid at all. A Punjab minister also claims that Sahil has been safe for several days.

So, who were the kidnappers? Why did they kidnap Sahil Saeed? Why did they release him? Was ransom money paid or not? Were the family involved? Are the Pakistani police close to arresting the gunmen or not? Many question still remain unanswered.