Brighton Residents Reassured On Surveillance

Residents in Brighton have been reassured that they are not constantly being spied on, and that any surveillance will only be used as a last resort.

Councillor Mary Mears, of Brighton and Hove City Council reassured residents that they would not be following in the footsteps of some other councils- who appear to be using surveillance equipment unnecessarily. Councillor Mears tried to calm residents after statistics for surveillance were released recently.

On her blog, Councillor Mears stated:

“I have always been very much against such a heavy-handed and intrusive approach and, as a council, we have always tried to use surveillance and the accessing of communications as a very last resort.

“We have also tried to be as open and transparent as possible about when we do have to resort to these measures.”

Councillor Mears stated that surveillance would only be used in protecting the safety of the public, and was key in catching criminals.
She added:

“Clearly, there are circumstances when we would be neglecting our duties not to use some of the powers to investigate criminal activity.
“Most of the covert surveillance that we do carry out relates to housing benefit fraud, harassment and fly-tipping – offences which I would think most people would consider to be very serious.”

Hopefully, residents of Brighton will now feel a little more at ease and can rest assured that Big brother is definitely not watching them.

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