PC used traff ic camera to f ilm cleavage in pub beer garden
A police officer on a surveillance operation photographed a woman’s cleavage with a traffic camera as she sat in a pub beer garden.
pc David Smith used an automatic number plate recognition camera (ANPR) to zoom in on the drinker’s chest then downloaded the images to his computer, a misconduct hearing was told.
The traffic officer also used his mobile phone to record video footage inside Harrogate police Station of a young woman sat in the public area.
The women were apparently oblivious to the voyeuristic shots recorded by Smith, who also used the ANPR camera for crude personal photography, the hearing in Hull was told.
Smith, a Humberside officer, was working for the Yorkshire and Humber regional roads policing team at the time of the alleged offences. He denies five counts of misconduct.
ANPR cameras are mounted in police vehicles as well as being at fixed locations to monitor traffic on roads.
They perform an important policing role by cross-matching car registration numbers with other databases to identify criminals.
But Smith clearly had other ideas when he was parked outside the Swing Gate pub in Bradford in october 2011 for a surveillance job.
The hearing was told he used the device to ‘zoom in to get closer foot- age of a woman’s cleavage’ while she sat in the beer garden. He is then alleged to have taken still images of the woman and downloaded them on to his personal computer.
in the police station incident the following year, the video footage of another young woman was also downloaded on to his personal computer.
The panel was told there was no policing reason for Smith to record the police station foyer and the woman who was sitting inside.
in November 2012, Smith is said to have used an ANPR camera to replace images of car registration plates with offensive words describing male and female private parts.
The hearing was told Smith’s actions were ‘not what the public expect of the behaviour of a police officer’ and ‘on no analysis deemed funny’.
He is also said to have downloaded footage from his police car camera and a snap of a bus parked in the street without a policing purpose.
The hearing continues.
‘Zoom in to get closer footage’