Authorities Under Fire Over Spycam Fiasco

The row over controversial surveillance cameras in parts of Birmingham reached new heights last month with the authorities coming under fire and increasing pressure to re-think the whole operation. Outraged local residents and campaigners have turned the tables on the watchers and it is now Birmingham City Council and West Midlands Police who are under intense scrutiny over their involvement in the plan. The cameras have been covered up pending a full public consultation about their future. The boldly named Project Champion has become a PR disaster.

Last month hundreds of local people packed into the Bordesley Centre in Sparkbrook for a memorable public meeting, dubbed The Spycam Summit. In an extraordinary scene, Assistant Chief Constable Sharon Rowe, who has been drafted in to sort out the mess, apologised:

"Mistakes have been made. Mistakes have been made by West Midlands Police and I am sorry. I am truly sorry.” Ms Rowe pledged, “There will no longer be any involvement from the Counter Terrorism Unit” and “there will be no covert cameras in your neighbourhoods."

Keynote speaker at the event, Liberty’s Shami Chakrabarti, described the scheme as “Project Bonkers” and summed up with these words:

“This scheme isn’t just dangerous and divisive; it’s unlawful as well.” […] “You have rumbled something here in Birmingham… you have an opportunity here in Birmingham to set an example to the rest of Britain.”

Birmingham City Council has announced a full review by its Overview and Scrutiny Committee into Project Champion. There will also be an independent review into the role of West Midlands Police and their handling of the project. Chief Constable Sara Thornton of Thames Valley Police will carry out the review. Media commentators have slammed the move, questioning how “independent” the review will be, considering that Ms Thornton is the former Chair (and current Vice Chair) of the same ‘Terrorism and Allied Matters’ group that designed and funded the project in the first place.

The network of 216 cameras was designed to monitor Birmingham’s Muslim population with blanket surveillance. The network of surveillance equipment includes 144 Automatic Number Plate (ANPR) cameras, 12 of which are “dual-purpose” (combining ANPR and CCTV), 38 standard CCTV cameras, and 72 “covert” cameras hidden at secret locations.

Such intense police surveillance in residential areas is unique and believed to be the first operation of its kind in mainland Britain. The only precedent for the use of Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) cameras to monitor entire communities in Britain was in Northern Ireland during “the troubles” to monitor the IRA and other political enemies. The Birmingham “spycam” scheme has similar political overtones: it was paid for with counter-terrorism funds, targets a specific (Muslim) community and appears to have little to do with tackling local crime.