Officer B report of incident

Incident report (ref 230)

15.15-15.45 Thursday 15 January 2008

LOCATION - PCSO WATCH mobile unit parked legally (with landowners permission) on private land at the edge of Sneinton Market. Officer B was staffing the mobile unit.

Statement by Officer B
"The two Community Protection Officers ( CPO’s) came onto the private land where our mobile unit was parked. They asked if I had a permit. I said we had full permission to be parked here. I then asked if I could take a photo. Officer CPO 9949 said no, and proceeded to call someone to check if we could be here. I went inside the mobile unit and tried to take a picture from the window. Unfortunately my camera battery died and the officer saw me. He became quite angry and demanded that I give my details. He said he could arrest me for taking a photo of him without permission!

I told him I wouldn’t give my details. I did not have to.

He then proceeded to radio through to his superiors. I asked the younger officer what was happening and he had a friendly chat with me explaining that his colleague was “ascertaining the situation”. This went on for a good twenty minutes after which the older officer came to me and said we had permission to stay here until 17.00. He then wanted to take a name as he said if we are filming and photographing a CPO we need permission. Again I refused and explained our project to him. I suggested he came back to talk to my superiors when they returned.

He told me we should remove the sticker as the mobile unit “might get torched”, if people thought it was actually a PCSO van. I thanked him for his advice and encouraged him to visit the R8R festival gallery across the road. He said he would come back at 16.00 to get the others names."