Following on from spying and following familes who are trying to get their children into school local councils are now using their powers under RIPA to spy on litter louts, and dog owners who allow their dog to foul.
Some local authorities have used the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (Ripa) more than 100 times in the last 12 months to conduct surveillance. The findings, obtained by the Press Association news agency, come from 46 of the 468 local authorities in the UK. BBC Article
The RIPA act is stated, by the government, as being for “using methods of surveillance and information gathering to help the prevention of crime, including terrorism.”
RIPA was specifically aimed at targeting serious criminals. However local councils have now started to use these wide spread powers for spying on residents.
