http://icsouthlondon.icnetwork.co.uk/southlondonpress/slpheadlines/tm_headline=will-police-be-forced-to-buy-key-evidence%2D%26method=full%26objectid=17879000%26siteid=50100-name_page.html
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Will police be forced to buy key evidence?Oct 6 2006

But Met chiefs in South London - responsible for patrolling many of the
capital's most crime-plagued bus routes - are said to be "furious" and
fear the cost of routine investigations will soar.

Transport for London (TfL) chiefs stunned senior officers when they
tabled the proposals on behalf of bus companies including Go Ahead,
Arriva and Metroline at a behind closed-doors meeting.

A highly-placed Met source told the South London Press: "It's
absolutely outrageous.When it was brought up at a public meeting we
couldn't believe our ears.

"We already spend vast amounts of taxpayers' money policing the buses
and protecting passengers.

"CCTV is a vital part of that because it gives us compelling evidence
to put before a jury - evidence that helps put thugs,violent criminals
and vandals behind bars.

It beggars belief that these profit-making firms now want to send us
the bill for protecting their customers."

High-quality CCTV footage is seen as a vital weapon in the drive to
identify offenders and stem crime on and around buses.

It helped convict deranged killer Peter Kelly, 28, who stabbed Bartosz
Dlugowszewski in front of horrified passengers on a double-decker in
Bermondsey.

And the 14-year-old knifeman pictured, above right, on a bus in
Kennington was caught when a reader shopped him the day after this
crystal-clear image was printed in the South London Press.

Cops have to study every possible CCTV sequence available because,
without it, defence lawyers can accuse them of not exhausting all
possible lines of inquiry.

Go Ahead - which operates buses from nine garages in central and South
London - argued it was reasonable to bill police £50 an hour for
collecting footage in a "small number of cases".

The firm said it processed 3,700 segments a year for the Met, with each
download taking about 45 minutes.

Andrew Smith, Go Ahead risk and safety manager, said: "Where the police
require CCTV from a number of buses for one investigation we may have
to make a charge to the police due to staff having to be diverted from
other duties to provide the evidence."

Speaking for other bus firms in South London, a TfL spokesman said the
Met had agreed in principle to the need for a charge.

He said: "Some of the bus operating companies have been bearing the
costs of responding to out-ofhours and particularly time consuming
requests from police for the retrieval of CCTV footage.

"Others have already set out a charging policy for such requests."

Glen Smyth, chairman of the Metropolitan Police Federation, branded bus
firms' demands "unreasonable".

He said: "They have a duty to assist the police and I would have
thought it was in their commercial interest to do everything possible
to ensure the safety of passengers.

"At the end of the day we can seize footage anyway in the same way we
would seize someone's computer if we felt it contained evidence.

"But we should be working together - not against each other."
Unquote

Now who needs who the most - Do the bus companies need the police to
ensure the safety and security of their staff and passengers - or is it
the other way round? The next thing will be the police charging the bus
companies in the same way they charge football clubs.