CHAPTER 8: COMPARISONS – OTHER FORMS OF SURVEILLANCE
used to require authorisation only by a superintendent and even now may be internally
authorised by the police force concerned.19
8.19.
Following public concerns about the long-term infiltration of an environmental protest
group by officers, one of whom engaged in an intimate sexual relationship with an
activist, a distinction has now been drawn between using undercover officers as
sources and other forms of CHIS. Additional restrictions apply to the use of
undercover officers. Thus:
(a)
The use of undercover officers authorised by RIPA is now restricted to the
police, NCA, Home Office and HMRC, and limited to match the responsibilities
of those bodies.
(b)
The use of undercover officers must be approved by an Assistant Chief
Constable, even if (as is sometimes the case) the undercover deployment is
intended to last only for a matter of hours).
(c)
Long-term undercover operations (over a year) must be authorised by Chief
Constable and then only with the approval of a Surveillance Commissioner.20
8.20.
4,430 CHIS were authorised in 2013-14 by law-enforcement bodies and other public
authorities.21
8.21.
The view was also expressed to me that there is no justification for the distinction that
now exists between the authorisation of police and non-police informers, the intrusive
effect of each operation being much the same. According to that view, the change to
the rules for police informers in 2013 was a knee-jerk reaction which addressed the
problem that had been in the headlines but did not look at the issues in a broader
perspective.
Surveillance cameras
8.22.
Surveillance cameras are widely used by public authorities for crime prevention and
public safety. They include CCTV cameras in public places, automatic number plate
recognition (ANPR) devices on roads and the body-worn video being introduced to
police work. They are used more widely still by private individuals and businesses:
the police estimated in 2011 that of the 1.85 million surveillance cameras in the UK,
1.7 million were privately owned.22
8.23.
The use of surveillance cameras does not ordinarily require authorisation under RIPA:
they are not used to carry out directed or intrusive surveillance because their use is
overt, rather than covert.23 Their use is regulated by DPA 1998 and PFA 2012. Two
19
20
21
22
23
Such arguments were emphasised in the submission of Birnberg Peirce & Partners on behalf of eight
women who had been in intimate relationships with police officers.
The Regulation of Investigatory Powers (Covert Human Intelligence Sources: Relevant Sources) Order
2013.
Report of the ISCommr for 2014, para 4.11.
JCDCDB Report, p. 7.
Covert Surveillance and Property Interference Code, para 2.27-2.28.
144