Rob's Blog

This email went round at work recently, and it has been seen on a few usenet news groups too:

I was talking today to one of my Linux users who happens to manage the IT security for Hampshire Police he’s given me a tip off bout some filming that Hants Police are doing for a television programme series from tomorrow (26th September) for seven weeks.

If you use the M27 or the M3 this potentially affects you so please proceed with caution and pass onto anyone who you feel might just need to know. The program a BBC South commission called “Traffic Cops” will be filmed covering the area from Ringwood concentrating on Ringwood M27
up to M3 J9 and a team working the ringroad around Southampton (Totton will have a unit working it alone), Cosham M27 stretch to J5 of the M27
(Southampton Airport turn-off). The fourth concentration is working from Winchester Services covering M3 to J10 M3 (Winchester South) using five unmarked cars, two Black Skoda 03 registration Octavias, an 05 plate dark red Mondeo and two Volvo saloon cars.

The BBC unit are going to be based out of a unit in Millbrook Road in Southampton and will also be covering the armed police response unit and
the Southampton Airport Police Security / British Transport Police team.

The BBC team are in Citreon Picasso MPVs leased from Arriva.

To make it even more effective the Traffic police have authority from Chief Constable to “work to rule” So instead of the laid back approach
to the usual Hants traffic police this will be a lot more concentrated to make it effective filming.

There’s no source, so no way of knowing how true it is, but a friend called me today after seeing three police cars on the hard shoulder having pulled someone over, two of which had large cameras and microphones recording the action.

The idea that the police will go after more motorists than usual to make the BBC programme look good is particularly sinister. The fact that I’ve rarely seen police pulling people over on the M3 and now my friend sees police everywhere doing so suggests there’s some truth in the notion. Exactly who do the police work for? Who do the BBC work for?

This entry was posted on Friday, September 30th, 2005 at 9:53 pm and is filed under Civil Liberties, Driving, News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.