Council officers as police: how does that look?
ARE you comfortable with the idea of Camden Council officers doubling up as special constables with uniforms, warrant cards and powers of arrest? Thought not. It all sounds a little too Big Brothery, doesn t it, and yet another slide on the slippery slope
ARE you comfortable with the idea of Camden Council officers doubling up as special constables with uniforms, warrant cards and powers of arrest? Thought not. It all sounds a little too Big Brothery, doesn't it, and yet another slide on the slippery slope towards a police state in this, the most-watched capital city of the world's most watched country, according to the latest CCTV statistics.
Council officers are generally very honest, law-abiding and upstanding citizens but many people who have encountered some of them in disputes would argue that the last thing they should be given is more power.
But we shouldn't be surprised. Nowadays the Town Hall mentality is that insulting a member is a criminal offence, no less. Not so long ago telling a councillor exactly what you thought of them was considered to be part of what we called free speech and open democracy.
One last point: unless it is over-staffed, how can the council spare its officers to do police work? We've always assumed they were already working around the clock, silly us...
You may also want to watch:
1
Most Read
- 1 All Camden care home residents given Covid jab
- 2 Crouch End's 'Paul the Paper' bids farewell to Broadway stall
- 3 Apology to Barnet mother for 'embarrassing' food parcel
- 4 'People are scared to come out', say Hampstead coffee shops
- 5 Hampstead vaccination centre shoots for 1,000 daily Covid jabs
- 6 Lord's Cricket Ground used as Covid-19 vaccination centre
- 7 Arsenal agree to terminate contract of defender Sokratis Papastathopoulos
- 8 Jeremy Corbyn launches Peace and Justice Project with calls to action
- 9 Joan Bakewell fires legal threat to government over second Covid jabĀ
- 10 Maida Vale florist starts weekly subscription to brighten lockdown