… a #truestory
Yesterday, I worked at an event.
I was assigned, as a newbie, an area where I was told it was really important to check badges in order to gain entrance.
The location I was given had no CCTV.
I was trolled from beginning to end by badge-holders.
Many people ensured their badges could not be seen, so I had to ask intrusively, rather than more professionally – and so much more seamlessly – just observe.
Then when it was my break, I was told to go and sit down in a place impossible to navigate to without prior knowledge.
I took fifteen minutes instead of thirty, and had no water or food all day.
Finally, I was told to look after and protect three statues in a triangle about fifteen metres square.
There were many drunk people around.
I was tasked to prevent people getting on.
I had no radio, and zero SIA support which did more than observe from afar, and then only came over when the gang who planned what happened next did what they did.
I shan’t say more, except that the worst offender then ingratiated himself with the two police officers who arrived way after the event.
The police officers appeared to be happy to be ingratiated. They may have not known anything of what happened.
What happened HAD been watched over by a sophisticated CCTV. I was exposed to the indignities for a long fifteen minutes, maybe much longer. No one with access to the CCTV footage asked me later to provide any kind of feedback, never mind communicate a complaint.
When I offered to, they said it wasn’t necessary.
I am still unsure whether this was to protect them more from unusual and incorrect discovery than me from any consequences of a professional nature.
The fact that the whole thing would’ve been seen by a CCTV operator, with plenty of time to send reinforcements, indicates to me a broader lesson might have been intended.
This is why I SHALL deliver my intuition capture, evidencing and validation platform.
I am convinced even more of its need now, and after yesterday, than ever I was since 2003 when I was clearly improperly treated.
The security agencies, both public and private, obviously need discretion to operate effectively. But the challenge of discretion – and here is where its frequent abuse – is the lack of democratic and judicial oversight, made impossible when a victim is faced with giving their citizen word against another’s, who may be in some kind of authority.
You can see the forces ranged against my ideas.
And that’s precisely why I shall NOT give way.
Ever.
