MDZS's blog

Interesting article on the BBC about how the police lie about crowd sizes on demos. Prompted by the 60,000 / 10,000 disparity between organisers and police estimates for the size of the Stop the War demo in Feb, the beeb asked the Met how they came up with their figure. Turns out their "10,000" was actually 12,000 and was actually an estimate of the maximum number of people in Trafalgar Square at any one time, not the size of the demo at all. And it was estimated by one person, based on the licencing capacity of the square. No sampling. No computer analysis of aerial photos. No thought that the licencing capacity might be based on health and safety rules, number of exits, not the number of people who will actually fit in the square. http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/regions/london/2007/08/379941.html How many there ? A predictable feature of any demonstration is a large gap between the numbers said to be present by the Police and by the protest organisers. Take for example the Stop the War demo in London in February. The organisers spotted six times as many marchers as the Police did - they said 60,000, whereas the Police gave out a figure of 10,000. Estimating the size of a large, scattered, varying, unregimented and mobile crowd is a far from easy task. But a factor of six is a pretty big discrepancy too. The BBC put a freedom of information request to the Metropolitan Police for full details of the process used to calculate the numbers present at this demonstration.

· Suspicious behaviour monitored from above · Privacy fear as emergency services plan wider use By James Randerson Police used a remote-controlled spy drone to watch crowds at the V festival at the weekend, the first time the technology has been used at a major public event. The 70cm-wide flying surveillance device, fitted with high-resolution still and colour video cameras as well as infrared night vision capability, was used to keep tabs on people thought to be acting suspiciously in car parks and to gather intelligence on individuals in the crowd. Staffordshire police said the drone's images did not lead directly to any arrests, but one reason for using it had been to deter would-be thieves. It was not flown over the main arena because of fears that a crash might cause injuries. The battery-operated drone's four carbon-fibre rotors are so quiet they cannot be heard from the ground once it is higher than 50 metres, and at 100 metres up it cannot be seen with the naked eye. It can fly 500 metres high, but the Civil Aviation Authority has set an operating limit of 120 metres. The vehicle, which takes off vertically, can be flown even when out of sight, because it beams images back to video goggles worn by the operator. Since May, Merseyside police have been using two drones - originally developed by a German company for military use - to police public order situations and prevent antisocial behaviour. One tactic is to fly the drone over groups of young people causing a nuisance in parks. The force has also used it for covert surveillance.