West Midlands surveillance operation ‘put back community relations ten years’

Community relations in the West Midlands have been ‘set back a decade’ according to the Thames Valley Police review of Operation Champion.

Operation Champion was established in late 2007 with a view to “creating a vehicle movement ‘net’ around two distinct geographical areas within the city of Birmingham – Alum Rock and Sparkhill”.

Alum Rock and Sparkhill are predominantly Asian semi-residential areas. The primary reason for installing the cameras – for counter-terrorism purposes – was not revealed until after The Guardian ran an article in June 2010 with the headline Surveillance cameras in Birmingham track Muslims’ every move.

The controversy that followed, in which members of the affected communities felt that their civil liberties had been completely ignored, led to West Midlands Police requesting a review by Thames Valley Police.

From the outset, the project was promoted to the public as a means of reducing crime and improving community safety. Installation of the covert and overt cameras began in January 2010.

The review found that West Midlands Police had decided that establishing permanent surveillance in a semi-residential area of predominantly Asian ethnic groups was the answer to the problem of how to keep track of suspected terrorists.

It states that: “This thinking should have been challenged by strong ethical and strategic leadership right from the start and questions should have been asked about its proportionality, legitimacy, authority, necessity and the ethical values inherent in the proposed course of action.”

There is also little evidence of consideration being given to compliance with the legal or regulatory framework concerning the use of CCTV cameras.

The review suggests that avoiding the same difficulties in the future will be quite simple. The police service would need to always consider existing laws and regulations and use them when making decisions. Decisions should also be made after looking at the questions from a human rights perspective and “accountability, consultation and transparency need to be considerations at the core of a project”.

The cameras installed were divided into automatic numberplate recognition (ANPR) cameras covering 106 traffic lanes, 36 CCTV cameras and – only for the use of the Counter Terrorism Unit (CTU) – 47 covert ANPR cameras and two covert CCTV cameras.

Documentary evidence, however, shows that Project Champion clearly began as a counter-terrorist project but senior officers saw the availability of extra cameras as a chance to reduce crime and improve safety.

By April 2010 questions were being asked.

The thinking behind Project Champion came in the same year (2007) as the discovery of two unexploded car bombs in London and the terrorist attack on Glasgow airport when a jeep drove into the airport and burst into flames. The threat of a terrorist attack was put at a critical level.
West Midlands Police applied for, and was awarded, a £3 million Home Office grant in early 2008 for counter-terrorism purposes.

It was in a February 2008 meeting, where no minutes were taken, that the possibility of Project Champion being used as a crime-reduction measure was first mentioned. Significantly, however, the focus remained on the counter-terrorism benefits.

The Thames Valley Police review found that opportunities to discuss the use of CCTV cameras for counter-terrorism purposes were completely missed by West Midlands Police. Assistant chief constables Anil Patani and Stuart Hyde had their comments recorded in the minutes of a meeting as far through the project as February 2009, stating that a narrative must be formulated to support Project Champion and that “they wanted a storyline on which to hang the project”. It was at this stage that the decision was taken not to associate the CCTV cameras with the CTU.

In April 2009, Mr Hyde chaired a ‘Project Champion briefing session’ at West Midlands Police headquarters. It was attended