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Comment by dendory | Hacker News Reader

But in the UK a lot of their cameras are mounted on cars which are driven by gov employees who roam around, park on specific streets then the person actually controls the camera and aims it, not as unsmilar to this. They are called CCTV cars you can check on YouTube. It's a completely normal thing there and will be here soon as well. So the way he does it is pretty close to reality, just more visible for people to see.

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Thanks for the info — I wasn't aware of this practice. I found a video of a protester filming the people in the CCTV cars:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cztfKB8SGCI

This protest, I can get behind. The equivalence is much greater and they've targeted the people doing the surveillance.

> This protest, I can get behind. The equivalence is much greater and they've targeted the people doing the surveillance.

I don't see anything wrong with this practice? It's just parking enforcement.

In my area, whenever a parking warden issues a ticket, they have to take photographs of the violation (the vehicle parked on yellow lines, expired ticket, etc.), of the ticket on the vehicle (stuck to the windscreen, under a wiper blade), showing the license plate, as well as the relevant parking signage.

Why do they do this? Because in the past motorists have tried every trick in the book to get out of fines. They weren't parked illegally, their ticket hadn't expired, they never received the fine, the signage was missing, obscured or incorrect.

It's a cat and mouse game, and if the last trick up the councils' sleeves is to record the parking infringement on video, then so be it.

It's a completely normal thing there

No, it really isn't, and I'm not sure what motive there is to claim otherwise, especially as you clearly don't live here. It's been in trial/used in a few boroughs of larger towns, though in fact there have been a number of boroughs that have removed them after complaints (Richmond which is a London borough removed theirs in 2011, with the councilors themselves disliking them).

I've lived in London and a couple more large towns/cities over the last 4 years and have never seen one or heard of one being used in a local area.

Um dude there's police "CCTV vans" everywhere.

I see one nearly every day in Lambeth in London. It's a Smart Car with "Parking Enforcement" written and a pole with a camera mounted on it attached to the top.

It's widely deployed these days, throughout the country not just in London.

I'm not really sure what they're supposed to do. You don't see them working late Friday / Saturday nights (the revellers just get a bit too rowdy around the delicate camera i suppose).

I should probably do a FOIA request and see what they achieve in my area.

If you do, do it through http://whatdotheyknow.com/ so that everyone can see the response.

They're pretty frequent around the Islington area and outside of London. Same with the DVLA cards with ANPR cameras that park up on busy roads; and the yellow police vans with 'CCTV Unit' plastered on the side.

'Course, we can all say what we have and haven't seen and go on for ages, without some hard stats.

Head outside the major cities (London, Birmingham, Manchester, etc.) and these kind of vehicles are exceptionally rare.

http://www.birminghampost.net/news/west-midlands-news/2010/0...

We've had a few issues with covert cameras in parts of Birmingham. The latest on the story above is that the removal and disposal of the cameras will cost a further £300k on top of the £3m to fit.

Returning to the original article; in the UK, this guy would be having a conversation with the police rather quickly, especially if he appears to be targeting individuals.

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