CPO's with HeadCam, at protests against deportation of Amdani Juma

In the words of the old football fans chant at the busies:-

We paid for your hats
We paid for your hats
What a waste of Council tax
We paid for your hats

and end with repeated chants of
Two hats
Two hats
Two hats

see example at
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCXHbCYvzjI

Who's up for choir practice in the Market Square then!

That sounds like an interesting one Harry....anymore verses?

The cop seems keen to show off his camera - a frustrated male model ? I always wanted one of these for filming actions, you can buy one for £70 that records to an SD card. I went looking to see how much the cops version costs - £900 ! I can't find a commercial headcam that costs more than £400 including recorder.


 http://www.securizine.com/pages/EquipmentJan05.html

Robocam Arrives in Northampton

Police in Northampton are all set to use a mini head camera to record alcohol-related disorder and other nuisance across the town.

The head cam or 'Robocam', as it is officially called, has been bought for Northampton Police at a cost of £900 by Northampton Community Safety Partnership.

Following a successful trial of a similar head cam, which was loaned to officers last summer, Police in Northampton are pleased to now have a permanent and even smaller camera which fits neatly under a police helmet and records excellent images of evidential quality.

PC Dave Bryan, of Northampton Police Community Safety Unit, said: ‘The Robocam will be used to film anti-social behaviour, including alcohol-related disorder, and may be used as evidence in any objections we may have against new premises alcohol licenses or extensions to a troublesome pub or club's licensed hours, for example.

‘The head cam is also likely to be used during drug warrants and in closures of crack houses as another tool to assist in the fight against crime.

Police have been using conventional video cameras to gather evidence of anti-social behaviour for some time but the head cam has the advantage of leaving officers' hands free and their vision unrestricted so that they can continue with their normal duties while fitted with the camera.

Bill Edwards, Manager of Northampton Community Safety Partnership, said: ‘Northampton Community Safety Partnership is committed to supporting the Police and its partners in developing and implementing effective and intuitive crime and anti social behaviour reduction activities. This camera is another tool which will allow us to achieve our aims.’

I think IMCs should all chip in and buy Tash one to test.
It looks like they have newer cameras than the Robocam website photos suggest. Looking for an obvious weakness, it stops recording if you pull the plug out.

User Manual
 http://www.robocamuk.com/downloads/instruction.pdf



"If you are near or involved in an incident take care to avoid being struck on the ear to which the earpiece is inserted"

£995.00 + VAT
RC001 Complete Kit
Police specification secure software for evidence capture (meeting and exceeding UK home office guidelines)
High resolution 720 x 576 (DVD quality), highest resolution portable hard drive DVR
Rugged user friendly remote control
Wide angle camera (110 degrees peripheral vision)
Helmet clips compatible with various helmets and hats

Email:  info@robocamuk.com

692 Warwick Road
Solihull
West Midlands
B91 3DX
United Kingdom

Telephone: 0121 705 4837
Facsimile: 0121 711 2600

Theyve used the a few times before at some 'foie gras' demos

Fair enough, there are far to many big brother cameras everywhere, even if some of them are used for supposed anti ASB reasons.

But what exactly was the need to take so many pictures of the guy with the camera on his hat, you obviously felt he warranted more attention than the actual reason that everyone was there.
And you obviously don't need permission to take pictures where you like in public, but did you ask him if he didn't mind you splashing them all over the internet?
I would have thought that in itself is a breech of privacy.

My old man was a cop for his sins, and that in itself could cause problems as we lived close to where he used to patrol, but keeping himself to himself and advertising the fact ensured we didn't get any backlash from others.
Did you think about that guys family before you sent it out around the world?

We should have the freedom to take pictures where we like, but we should also have a responsibility to the people we take pictures of, we are all humans at the end of the day and no matter what your job, you should be able to step out of it at the end of the day.

You never know, there may be a bit more trust built up if people didn't go sneaking around.

... shots to the clappa!

What a moustache!

Let's talk about "Fairness for all", shall we?

"You obviously felt he warranted more attention than the actual reason that everyone was there."

Bzzzt wrong! See Tash's other post:  http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/06/400121.html

"Did you ask him if he didn't mind you splashing them all over the internet?"

Do the FIT (Forward "Intelligence" Team) ever ask us if we mind having our photos taken continuously and being shared around the country between them and their fascist mates, or if they can call us by our first names from across the street, or if they can follow us home? NO. These cops and wannabe unwarranted cops who bring surveillance equipment along to situations that under no circumstances need it (such as a peaceful protest) serve one purpose alone, and that is to intimidate people into not protesting in future. Quite frankly, we MUST photograph and video them relentlessly and put their faces all over the web, in order to make being the camera cop completely undesirable, so that none of them want to do it (in theory, though there's always another fascist, sucker or wannabe "Robocop" in waiting).

The police filming us all the time (with no cause whatsoever) is a breach of our privacy, of civil liberties, and is a deliberate intimidation tactic. Furthermore, there's no such excuse as "just doing my job", according to the Nuremburg trials.

"My old man was a cop for his sins"

Nuff said. My old man worked for a bank, and I make no excuses for that whatsoever. A pure evil institution (although actually, it's one of the ones that scores highest "ethically" these days, but still a filthy bank we're talking about). We can love our parents and still be frank that we detest what they do for a living, and know that our entire childhood was paid for by dirty money. Sounds like you and me are in the same boat there. We can't change our backgrounds, but we don't have to make excuses for them either.

"Did you think about that guys family before you sent it out around the world?"

Your point? Did he think about Amdani Juma before turning up to repress the people who consider him a brother? Hardly! He's "just doing his job" filming peaceful protesters (and providing his overlords with the footage for "evidence" of things like "who the trouble makers are").

"We should have the freedom to take pictures where we like, but we should also have a responsibility to the people we take pictures of, we are all humans at the end of the day and no matter what your job, you should be able to step out of it at the end of the day."

Aww how lovely and fluffy your world must be, where cops and protesters dance hand in hand with each other and where the state is nice and friendly and always acts responsibly and transparently, with our best interests at heart and full accountability for anything we're not happy with. Meanwhile, back on planet Earth...

If you're human then be human, and don't become a cop with a camera strapped to your head who goes filming peaceful protesters without any justification!

Cops are the employees of the state and are routinely used to repress the population - they should be afraid to step out because they betray every single one of us by their very existence.

"You never know, there may be a bit more trust built up if people didn't go sneaking around."

Trust? Oh that'll be trust with the same police who tell you that if you unlock by a certain time, they won't arrest you (and then do)? Or the same police who jump out of riot vans all masked up and with their numbers hidden like some kind of armed response unit simply because you've tried to walk towards the offices of a climate criminal? Or those same shitbags who knock a middle-aged man over and he ends up in hospital with a broken hip, in pain and struggling to walk for months, simply because he was standing on the pavement and they felt like roughing him up a bit? Or those same traitors who turn out to protect the meetings of fascists like the BNP so they can continue to incite the racial violence which destroys communities? Or those same bastards who show up in their hundreds to protect arms dealers from the public? Or those same arseholes who arrest protesters under false pretence and then release them without charge hours later just to silence their protest and get them off the street? Or those same fascists who are only too happy to use and abuse every stinking new power handed to them by an increasingly and transparently authoritarian state? Or those same pathological bullies who have for decades intimidated and beaten up miners, hippies, peace protesters, rights campaigners, students, free party goers, travellers, blacks, asians, anyone with an Irish accent, gays, environmental campaigners, animal rights campaigners, socialists, communists, anarchists or just about anyone who has so much as dared to stand up for any sort of real democracy anywhere in the world?

They've got away with murdering innocent people on numerous occasions (I hardly need to name names) and distorting the evidence to make prosecution impossible, and have even been known to do lovely things like taser someone who fell into a coma while sat on the bus.

 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/west_yorkshire/7096456.stm

Them? (And their buddies at the IPCC who wouldn't say "boo" to a goose?)

Yet you seriously think we should try to build trust with the willing boot boys of the state, who routinely abuse their monopoly on violence to repress the public, and go home with a tidy sum in their pocket for their troubles?

Well, nobody asked me if I wanted to pay a bunch of fascist bully pigs to be my personal oppression service, thanks. I wouldn't trust a cop further than I could throw them - and looking at the girth of many of them, that's gonna be about 3 feet tops!

Stick your head above the parapet and go to a few protests and direct actions, and maybe one day you will understand. The police are not and can never be our friends - by definition of their job description, and by virtue of who they work for.

That some of them clearly get off on knowingly and repeatedly infringing our supposed "rights" in the name of the state is the final insult. These kind of people would have been the first in line to "uphold the law" by turning on the gas taps at Auschwitz, and they still would be if such a thing ever happened again.

"And you obviously don't need permission to take pictures where you like in public, but did you ask him if he didn't mind you splashing them all over the internet? I would have thought that in itself is a breech of privacy."

It is hard to claim animal cruelty when the pig is obviously enjoying himself being photographed, and when he is obviously enjoying photographing others. I've never seen a smirk overpower a moustache before, this is one happy copper - or a male model hired by the company to promote the kit. Seriously, how can you justify complaining about a FIT cop getting photographed without condemning his photographing peaceful protestors for no reason ?
Oh, before an indignant Dailt Mail reader accuses me of demeaning cops, most cops I know refer to other cops as 'pigs', they know the score. If someone invents an insult for you, then adopt it yourself. 'All cops are bastards, but not all bastards are cops'.

Lets not make comments that seem abit infantile. In my experience & many other police do not follow daft orders to a T except certain units. Thats why nazis used gestapo & SS& government currently use the met & fit teams to do certain political jobs, though even most of them are not nazis!
Some people in government though like Bush & Blair& corporations they work for like Exxon mobil are physcopaths& criminally insane who need locking up.

I have seen police attack people, but worth remembering that although indymedia types were stopping nazis from the start in Spain in 1930s etc, the British state did eventually join in to stop them too, however hashed it was in the start with M16 originally helping Franco.

Have you thought about the fact that you might be putting the guys family at risk by pasting his picture on the web? People in the job do it because they like it and enjoy doing something for the community. Here you are slagging off the Police/CPO's.

I hope you never need them for something and if you do i hope they cant help you.