Note: Read the entire article, the procedure of snooping is not being prohibited, it is now merely reserved for higher ups within the councils.
Town Hall Stasi are to be stripped of the power to
spy on residents suspected of 'bin crimes' and dog fouling.
Rules unveiled by the Home Office today will prevent councils from
using the anti-terror Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act for trivial
offences.
It follows a string of revelations by the Daily Mail about over-zealous
officials using hidden cameras and even paying undercover agents to
trail the law-abiding public.
These include spying on people suspected of putting bins out early,
littering and cheating school catchment area rules. All of these are
highlighted in today's draft code as cases where undercover surveillance
could not be justified.
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Launching a consultation on the future of RIPA, ahead of a final set
of rules due later this year, the Home Office raises the prospect
of Town Halls being stripped of the right to use the Act.
However, they may be allowed to continue using it for restricted offences.
The new rules are also likely to see the power to make a RIPA authorisation
passed to executive officers only, rather than low-ranking bureaucrats.
The local government minister, John Healy is writing to councils to
say their future use of the powers must be ' proportionate'.
It follows several cases in which innocent people were targeted under
the Act, including a family who were spied on for two weeks by Poole
Borough Council, in Dorset. It wrongly suspected them of cheating
school catchment area rules.
