Police chief to warn that 'Big Brother' councils pose major threat

Ken Jones, president of the Association of Chief Police Officers, will warn that councils and other public bodies now obtain personal information that was previously ‘sacrosanct’.

Speaking at the launch of the annual ACPO conference in Liverpool, he will say: ‘The ceding of intrusive powers to local government and other bodies, and giving them access to once sacrosanct personal data, was neither well understood or accepted.’

A leading police officer will claim that it's not only CCTV cameras that are keeping an eye on us

Mr Jones will also warn that the abuse of surveillance powers will
bring about an ‘Orwellian Big Brother society’. He will say: ‘The key to public confidence here is more about who controls and has access to the data and intrusive powers.’

His speech comes as councils are being ordered to stop using controversial snooping powers to investigate trivial offences.

Sir Simon Milton, head of the Local Government Association, has written to local authorities this week calling on them to ‘urgently review’ their use of surveillance operations usually used for suspected terrorists.

It has recently emerged that they are launching up to 1,000 operations a month to investigate minor offences such as dog fouling and littering.

Mr Jones will tell delegates that this has caused ‘widespread unease’ among the public and needs to be stopped.