Tommy the Trumpet had spotted some pushbike CEOs leaving the NSL depot not wearing their proper uniforms, so we decided on a little covert operation where we would try to film a CEO leaving the depot, and then follow him/her at a discreet distance in the hope of catching them issuing tickets out of uniform.
We parked up out of sight of the offices in the full knowledge that all CEOs and the $camera car would have to pass us to go out on duty.
So far, so good.
We didn't have to wait long for our first pushbike CEO to make an appearance and that's when we realised the flaw in our plan. You see people on pushbikes have plenty of time to take in the scenery, part of which was taken up by two large hairy arsed bikers, one of whom (Tommy) was pointing a small palm held camera in the direction of the CEO, who immediately clocked what was going on and turned his bike round (on a one way street incidentally) to have words with us. The conversation went something like this and you might want to bear in mind he was quite aggressive towards us:
CEO: Are you filming me.
Us: No.
CEO: Yes you are, you're filming me.
Us: So what if we are?
CEO: You're not allowed to film me! I want it deleted immediately!
Us: We are allowed to film you. This is a public place and we are perfectly entitled to do so.
CEO: No you're not! Delete the video right now or I will call the police!
Us: We will not be deleting the video so you had best call the police then.
At this point he got on his talking brooch and radioed in that some men were videoing outside the offices. He then rode off to continue his conversation out of earshot, but shortly afterwards we spotted a female NSL employee standing on the corner making a phone call. I thought it would be rude for us to leave her out so I took some stills of her, one of which I attach.
After a while, once she had finished her conversations, the bike rider appeared from the direction he had just gone (once again riding the wrong way up a one way street) and the lady (it turns out she was his supervisor) approached from the other direction in a sort of pincer movement. Perhaps they thought they could scare us off? We don't scare that easy though.
There followed a further exchange that went something like this:
Supervisor to Tommy: What is your name?
Tommy: Who are you then?
Supervisor to Tommy: I am this man's (pointing to pushbike man) supervisor. What is your name?
Tommy: I'm not telling you my name. You have no authority to ask me that. In fact, what is your name, address and telephone number?
Supervisor to Tommy: I'm not telling you that. It's private.
Tommy: So by what authority are you asking for me to give you my personal details. Just because you're wearing a uniform doesn't mean you can walk up to a member of the public and ask for their personal details.
Sensing that Tommy was winning that little battle, pushbike man stuck his pedal in.
CEO to me: So I'm not allowed to to talk to you on the street then?
Me: You are perfectly entitled to talk to me on the street provided you are civil, and I am perfectly entitled to ignore you.
That stumped him so he got back onto the subject of the video and wanting it deleted, at which point his supervisor (who had noted our number plates) gestured him to move away, and they headed off back to their offices.
Our cover having been blown (poor as it was
) we put our hi vis's on and went and parked our bikes in full view of the NSL offices. About 10 minutes later a car pulled up next to us and two gentlemen got out. They showed us their IDs that confirmed they were police detectives.
Having had more experience with this kind of thing, Tommy handed me the reigns and I proceeded to entertain the nice men with stories of what we do and why we do it. During this interview a little group of interested spectators started to form outside NSL's offices. No doubt they were expecting to see those nasty, video making bikers dragged off screaming and kicking after having had our cameras confiscated. So to disabuse them of this particular notion I gave the group a huge smile and waved enthusiastically in their direction. This obviously confused them and they went back into their offices, no doubt to discuss whether we were in fact a couple of local nutters who were known to the police and were therefore being dealt with using a softly, softly approach.
One of the detectives said he was going to have a word with whoever called them, so I handed him a copy of the statement of intent and asked if he wouldn't mind making sure that the appropriate people got sight of it. He took it and off he went.
We had another nice long chat with the remaining detective, the contents of which I will not put here. Suffice to say that he was not best pleased with how Kingston council operate their $cars, having been the recipient of more than one PCN himself.
What I prefer to think about is how the conversation went in NSL's office once the detective got in there. I would imagine it went something like this:
Copper: Who was it that called please?
Supervisor: It was me. I am this man's supervisor (points to pedal pusher) and he reported that those two men you were talking to were taking videos when he went out on the street. They are not allowed to take videos and we want you to make them delete the footage.
Copper: They are allowed to film in a public place.
Pedal pusher interrupts: No they're not. We know our rights and they can't do that.
Copper: Who told you this sir?
Pedal pusher: Our NSL trainers.
Copper: Your NSL trainers are wrong sir. And anyway, what about the camera car outside. That films members of the public on a regular basis doesn't it? Your company doesn't need any special permissions from the members of the public it films either. Now unless there are any further complaints I would like to explain exactly what these men are doing and why. Let me start with this “Statement of intent” that the gentlemen have asked me to give to you......
He must then have had a word with the $car operator because when he returned to us he told us that if we were to $chunt the $car, the operator would have no problems with us now he understood what we were about.
We continued to chat and while we did, the $car operator came out and got in the $camera car, at which point I started to put my gear on in readiness for the off. The detectives recognised what was going on and said their fond farewells, wishing us the best of luck with our endeavours.
It was shortly after that Tommy broke his $chunting cherry.
And do you know what? Not once during any of our exchanges did the nice policemen ask us to identify ourselves and that is for one simple reason. THEY DIDN'T HAVE TO KNOW WHO WE WERE IN ORDER TO TELL US WE WEREN'T DOING ANYTHING ILLEGAL.