Riddle of missing CCTV

[Albus]

The police watchdog chief investigating the death of a man at the G20 protest who was shoved over by an officer is under fire for wrongly claiming there were no CCTV cameras in the area.

Nick Hardwick, chair of the Independent Police Complaints Commission, said last week that no cameras covered the spot near the Bank of England where Ian Tomlinson was assaulted.

However several cameras in the City of London - one of the most heavily surveilled places in the country - could have captured footage of the violence on April 1.



The IPCC is already under pressure after being accused by critics of acting too slowly in launching a fully independent investigation into the death of Mr Tomlinson.

At first it seemed that Mr Tomlinson's death from a heart attack had no connection to police whatsoever. The IPCC announced an independent inquiry after video footage taken by a New York fund manager of him being assaulted came to light.

Speaking to Channel 4 News in a live interview last week, Mr Hardwick said: ''We don't have CCTV footage of the incident...there is no CCTV footage, there were no cameras in the location where he was assaulted."

However, several cameras appear to be trained on the corner of Threadneedle Street and Royal Exchange Passage where the assault took place.

The IPCC today accepted that Mr Hardwick was mistaken in his belief.

A spokesman said of the interview: ''At this point Mr Hardwick believed that he was correct in this assertion – we now know this may not be accurate.

''There are cameras in the surrounding area.

''From the outset it has been a main line of our enquiry to recover all CCTV from the Corporation of London and from all private premises in the area.

''This work is ongoing and involves many hours of viewing and detailed analysis.''

snip

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1169893/Riddle-missing-CCTV-film-G20-death-watchdogs-claim-cameras-proved-wrong.html


"Many hours of viewing and detailed analysis"

Translation: "Many hours of editing using video manipulation software"