Revealed: British councils used Ripa to secretly spy on public
Found on The Guardian on Thursday, 29 December 2016
Councils were given permission to carry out more than 55,000 days of covert surveillance over five years, including spying on people walking dogs, feeding pigeons and fly-tipping, the Guardian can reveal.
Among the detailed examples provided were Midlothian council using the powers to monitor dog barking and Allerdale borough council gathering evidence about who was guilty of feeding pigeons.
Once the surveillance network is established, it will be abused; no matter what politicians promised before.