Originally Posted by
Satoshi Nakamoto
What is going on with the National Police Air Service, they have been observed orbiting several locations for upto two hours at a time.
One of their P.68s was stooging around various points in the East Midlands on Saturday for well in excess of two hours. Locations included central Nottingham, Long Eaton (between Nottingham and Derby), Chesterfield and a rural area between Sheffield and Rotherham.
It looks very much as though they were tracking (some might suggest spying on) people enjoying the excellent weather on Saturday, and in all probability directing the police on the ground towards areas where people were perceived to be breaking the lockdown regulations. It is difficult to see what else might link the areas that were under surveillance; it isn't, for example, as though the aircraft was tracking someone making a break for it (for whatever reason) down the M1.
If the police are using the aircraft for such surveillance of mostly innocent people you have to ask if such behaviour is really acceptable in our society; after all, how long can it be before they are looking into peoples gardens, on the pretext of covid-19 restrictions?