Covert Surveillance and RIPA 2000

Newcastle City Council have lashed back at the Guardian newspaper after it reported the Council and the City as being the worst in the country for using its powers of surveillance and monitoring under the Regulation and Investigaory Powers Act 2000 which is called RIPA for short.

The head of law for Newcastle council states that the powers currently being deployed have been there for 10 years and that they have used the RIPA responsibly, the covert surveillance and monitoring they carry out has always been in place and ensure that their methods do not infringe human rights.

In fact the head of law for Newcastle City Council states that they Use RIPA to ensure that the type of covert surveillance and investigation used is done safely behind the framework that RIPA lays down exactly for this type of activity.

NCC use RIPA to investigate everything from fraud to fly tipping and the power was invoked 48 times last year which was a significant drop after being advised they do not need to monitor noise levels with this type of power.

All RIPA requests by council officials are screened by trained senior officers (albeit employed by NCC) who take into account the effect of covert surveillance etc on the right to privacy for human beings.

Copestore use surveillance in a responsible way but very effectively, all of our operatives and staff are fully trained and also compliant with SIA Legislation and practical applications of RIPA 2000 and HRA 1998.

Abiding by RIPA 2000 can be essential when gathering evidence that needs to be used in a court of law, there is nothing more frustrating than having a case fall out of bed due to inadmissable evidence which is increasingly a part of failed police prosecutions when cases are presented to the CPS.

If you are thinking of deploying covert surveillance as part of an intelligence gathering operation then contact us now and see how we can help.