Police spy on UK Students by CCTVs

British police have installed CCTV surveillance cameras inside university and college campuses to spy on student protesters as young as 16, it has been disclosed.

University authorities said they have demanded an independent probe to be carried out into the “over zealous” use of surveillance techniques against students during the policing of protests against fee rises and public spending cuts, British media reported.

The University and College Union's (UCU) conference will table a motion this weekend, which condemns attempts to "criminalize protest" through "state surveillance of higher education and further education institutions for eliciting intelligence regarding protest activities.”

The conference motion is also critical of police "kettling" tactics, which have seen student protesters held in Parliament Square and Westminster Bridge long into the night during last years' protests against the increase in university tuition fees of up to £9,000 per year.

Cases include the arrest of four students at the University College London (UCL) after the university authorities handed over CCTV footage of them chalking the walls of one of its buildings during a student occupation.

Police also questioned 16 and 17-year-olds from Barnsley College who already knew their names after they had returned to the town following a mass demonstration against fees rises in London.

In the Barnsley case, Dave Gibson, UCU branch secretary at Barnsley College, said he was "alarmed" that police who had questioned the students already knew their names without being told who they were. "It is quite worrying for a 16 or 17-year-old," he added. "Clearly there was some kind of surveillance going on. From their questions, they had certainly filmed them and had footage of that." 

>>>> source >>>>