Fed up Londoners appear to be taking the law into their own hands, as the London Metropolitan Police has reported 510 crimes against so-called ULEZ (Ultra Low Emission Zone) cameras in the period of April 1st to August 31th.
Equipped with license plate recognition software, such cameras are meant to pick out vehicles which do not meet required minimum emissions standards. Most petrol cars made before January 2006 and diesel cars made before September 2015 do not meet these standards. Under the ULEZ initiative, drivers are liable for a £12.50 daily charge if they drive non-compliant vehicles anywhere in London. And those who do not pay face fines of up to £180.
The implementation of London Mayor Sadiq Khan’s ULEZ, meant to improve the quality of air and which was expanded across all of the capital’s boroughs on August 29th, has been an abiding source of controversy since its inception.
The last two weeks, however, saw a significant uptick of citizenry’s open hostility towards Khan’s invasive measures—with the cameras being the obvious targets.
Between April and mid-August, 339 of such cameras had either been damaged, stolen or their vision obscured.
When taking the past month in isolation, one even sees a doubling of the number of crimes, since by August 1st the Met had recorded 288. And since a crime can include more than one offense, the actual number of cameras affected is likely to be even higher.
As of mid-August, TfL (Transport for London) had installed 1,900 cameras in outer London and there are now more than 3,400 cameras across the whole ULEZ.
The Metropolitan Police told the BBC: “To date, Met investigations have led to the arrest of two individuals, one charged and bailed for trial to June 2024 and the other [case] discontinued by the CPS [Crown Prosecution Service].”
It added that the force “continues to monitor anti-ULEZ protests, as we do for all potential public order matters, to consider if bespoke policing plans are required.”
A TfL spokesperson told BBC:
Criminal damage to ULEZ cameras puts the perpetrators at risk of prosecution and life-changing injuries, while simultaneously risking the safety of the public. Camera vandalism will not stop the ULEZ operating London-wide. All vandalized cameras are replaced as soon as possible.
The secretive group behind the acts of vandalism, dubbed “Blade Runners” after the special agents from the iconic sci-fi film Blade Runner (1981), and its 2017 sequel, Blade Runner 2049, is unrepentant. According to MailOnline, they have “vowed to stop at nothing until they’ve ‘taken down EVERY one of Sadiq Khan’s low-emission cameras.”
Organized though social media groups, the Blade Runners have crowdsourced maps of cameras online and openly share tips on how to disable the cameras, according to The Times.
The groups use gardening euphemisms to discuss their planned activities, such as referring to the cameras as “weeds,” taking them down as “pruning” or “trimming.” The Times reports:
Before the bank holiday weekend, one person in [a] group, Action Against Unfair Ulez, wrote: “I hope everyone makes the most of [their weekend] and gets lots of gardening/ pruning/tidying up done before we all return back to work and travel on Tuesday. If you are able-bodied and do nothing, you’re not entitled to moan if the weeds grow.”
Another post, recommending an extendable trimmer for £12.99, said: “For all you budding gardeners, check out Lidl’s mystery aisle next week.”
One of the protesters, an anonymous father in his mid-forties, told MailOnline:
Snipping, damaging with hammers, painting, disabling on a circuit level and removing. They are unbolted and they are snipped. The tools they use to install them are the ones we use to remove it.
Asked what motivated his and his compatriots, he said:
We don’t want this. It’s a way to try to … restrict our movements. F*** them. It will not happen because we haven’t done anything to deserve it.
A protest is organized for 11:00 on September 6th at Parliament Square in London during the Prime Minister’s Question Time.
