[Closed] Catching fly tippers - Legality of placing proximity cameras on public land

Arn't there some ome rare birds/deer/giraffes near by you want to try and capure a photo of? I hear there are some nifty wildlife motion detector camera's you can buy...

If they just happen to catch neer'do well's by co-incidince.... 😉

As I understand it, you can take pictures of whatever you want in public.

Some guys local to me did exactly this to catch a stickman who was sabotaging some of the local trails.

I seem to remember that thegman67 of this parish mentioned it on a thread a couple of months back.

I'm not sure but when we got CCTV fitted at work we had to put signs up, would this be the same?
The wildlife ones in the woods up here catch more naked joggers than you might suppose by all accounts

Not 100% sure on the legality or not, especially covert stuff, but in the real world, the authorities are not going to go after you for some CCTV rule breach when you're trying to catch someone fly tipping. A frown at worst if anyone complains.

I'm not sure but when we got CCTV fitted at work we had to put signs up, would this be the same?

CCTV for a business comes under the Data Protection Act (IIRC, might be something else) and has specific rules.

As I understand it, you can take pictures of whatever you want in public.

Certainly with stills photography that's true, with a few restrictions. Certain areas forbid it, either explicitly or implicitly (railway stations for example). Also if it's private land, which a lot of the countryside is, you may have potential issues with trespass (you'd need to ask permission from the landowner). But otherwise yes, you've pretty much got unrestricted access to take photos where you like, assuming personal use; if it's for commercial use then it's a whole other barrel of monkeys.

I can only assume the same applies to filming, but I don't know for sure offhand.

i have one of these for the garden, mainly to see what is visiting.. mostly got pictures of my ass, the mrs ass, our old cat,and some other local cats..and a fox on a few occasions. mine has a flash though, so not subtle. they're called "trap cameras" usually, d yanks use em to determine areas deer frequent for hunting etc.

doesn't work great in low light, but i did buy the cheapest i could find (about 30 quid at the time)

It probably isn't legal according to [url= https://www.onlinespyshop.co.uk/blog/features/spy-cameras-law-10-essentials-need-know/ ]this.[/url]

Cheers guys, think I'm going to set it to take stills only, i suppose they cant prove I wasn't in the bushes waiting to take the photo if it did become an issue:)

You could always submit the photos anonymously? Probably wouldn't be admissable as evidence but if they can identify the culprits they can then do fingerprints or trace the waste etc.

Even if it is illegal, so is flytipping and I reckon I know which one will be more likely to see you up before the beak.

Yeah. This would be covert surveillance, you could get in more trouble than the flytippers. Speak to whomever owns the land.

Can't open the link above, but I think it falls on the wrong side of being ok to do if the end game of criminal proceedings. I would consider it directed surveillance for the purposes of evidence and as such you need permissions and justifications (certainly police wise anyway).

That being said , I would be impressed if I saw a nice big poster printed at a trail head clearly showing the van fly tipping thanking them for their contributions to messing up the place.

Tips near us are now introducing £4 per bag fees - so I expect fly tipping will get worse around us

You could wade through the RIPA....it won't affect you tho...
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2000/23/contents

Or just do it. Does anyone really think either a landowner or potentially a magistrate is going to worry about a decent, honest, concerned member of the public trying to stop fly tipping....

If it's public land then contact the EA/SEPA/NRW (delete as appropriate). They are having a crack down on waste crime so should be interested if a bit under resourced.

Have you spoken with your local authority Environmental Health department? I believe they are responsible for investigating fly-tipping, unless it's large scale or hazardous. More details https://www.gov.uk/report-flytipping

Have used the wildlife cameras to catch scrotes doing scrotey stuff before. From my conversations with the police if it captures images of public places (open access land, public highways, bridleways etc) you need signage.

Sod all to do with what you're photographing and everything to do with where you're photographing [i]from[/i].

Some guys local to me did exactly this to catch a stickman who was sabotaging some of the local trails.

Print the photos and drop them through the police station door with a wee note. It's not enough evidence to prosecute but you never know what will happen when the police chap the dude's door.

Result = stickman charged with reckless conduct.

Just do it. If you ask there will be always some official dick head who says your not allowed to do it. You don't need to register when you put CCTV on your house. I used to be on a committee that looked after a local park. The local council's answer when you ever asked them if you were allowed to do something, was don't ask and then we can't say no. Just get on and do it. e.g. can we change the broken slats on the park benches? The official response is: "No it must be a qualified contractor that have been vetted by the council, etc, etc. In reality it was just get on a and do it as whatever you do is going to be bloody safer than the rotten benches at the moment.

Totally agree that fly tipping boils my piss, had a rant to myself on the way to work just this morning.

Surely it has to be a no brainer for councils to install these things at known tipping spots? The fines would pay for them multiple times over.