The toothpaste will not go back in the tube – nurses cannot prevent technology changing their world any more than police officers, security guards, nannies, doctors and other have been able to in the past.
There is a revolution going on among people desperate to find out the truth about how their loved ones are being treated or another social ill. People are deciding that they will not wait any longer and that they will no longer tolerate being brushed off.
People are not accepting not knowing any longer.
People are taking matters into their own hands.
THE STRUCTURE OF THIS BOOK
This book takes a narrative approach to the story of secret filming and assisting people in future with doing it or understanding it. In addition to providing eight chapters that contain specific instruction and advice, I also try to immerse the reader in the experience of covert investigation by offering ‘Undercover Tales’ – real-world stories of real undercover filming.
This is not a textbook; it is a guidebook, a journey into a world that for most people feels unusual and sometimes even impossible when they first step into it but which is really just our ordinary world magnified through a tiny hidden lens.
The eight main chapters cover the history of secret filming, technical advice on using proper cameras and then on using the cameras in phones, ethical guidance, the legal context, the emotional and physical costs, what to do with the footage and predictions for the future.
Chapter 1 tells a potted history of journalistic infiltration, of secret recording and covert technology.
Chapter 2 provides specific guidance on ‘proper’ secret cameras and how to avoid some common mistakes. This is a step-by-step guide for choosing a camera, installing it, using it and safely retrieving the covert footage.
Chapter 3 is a guide to using a mobile or cellular telephone to film people secretly and safely: ‘secretly’ in that if someone doesn’t realise they are being filmed, then the recording is ‘covert’, and ‘safely’ because phones are risky – they are obviously more visible than ‘proper’ hidden cameras. Phones with integrated cameras are powerful tools for social justice but can put people in danger.
Chapter 4 sets out the ethical considerations which, I would argue, should be thought through before and during any secret filming.
Chapter 5 provides a ‘beginner’s guide’ to the legal questions involved with covert recording.
Chapter 6 describes two issues that often take people by surprise and then offers advice on how to cope with them. These issues are essentially the logistical difficulties involved in doing secret filming well and the emotional costs involved with deception and recording people without their knowledge.
Chapter 7 sets out what happens after the secret camera or mobile phone camera stops filming. This chapter breaks down step by step the choices for people who have done secret filming and for people presented with their footage.
Finally, Chapter 8 looks to the future, describing the likely technological developments in covert recording that will occur over the next decade – and considers the implications for all of us.
TERMINOLOGY
There is more detail on the types of covert recording and the differences between them in Chapters 2 and 3, but it is appropriate to provide a preliminary guide to the meanings of certain key terms. I use ‘covert recording’ and ‘secret filming’ interchangeably to cover all occasions where someone films someone else without their knowledge, whether that is with a ‘proper’ secret camera or with a camera in a phone.
‘Hidden cameras’ are recording devices in which a camera and recorder have been deliberately disguised. Some secret filming is done with the cameras of mobile or cellular phones.
NOTES
1.Holt, A. (2014) ‘Staff sacking and suspensions over poor elderly care.’ Available at www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-27128011, accessed on 3 April 2015.
2.The care home in question says they have ‘invested hundreds of thousands of pounds in a programme to overhaul care, equipment, facilities, decor and staff training’. See Robinson, E. (2015) ‘The Old Deanery rebranded as the New Deanery as new owners invest hundreds of thousands of pounds.’ Available at www.braintreeandwithamtimes.co.uk/news/12903163.The_Old_Deanery_rebranded_as_the_New_Deanery_as_new_owners_invest_hundreds_of_thousands_of_pounds, accessed on 10 May 2015.
3.Borland, S. and Sinmaz, E. (2015) ‘“Ban worried relatives from filming the elderly in care homes,” argue nurses who “don’t want to be scrutinised”.’ Daily Mail, 22 June. Available at www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-3134928/Ban-worried-relatives-filming-elderly-care-homes-argue-nurses-don-t-want-scrutinised.html, accessed on 4 July 2015.
4.There is more detail on specifically how and why that can be done in later chapters (particularly Chapter 4).
5.Gregory, A. (2015) ‘Nurses want spy cameras banned from care homes due to “remote supervision” fears.’ Daily Mirror, 22 June. Available at www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/nurses-want-spy-cameras-banned-5931165, accessed 4 July 2015.
UNDERCOVER TALES
First Going Undercover
The night before I began my first long-term undercover assignment, my nerves were tangled. Since then I’ve never felt as frightened as I felt that night. I felt so worried that I was somehow numbed, distanced from myself and what was in front of me. After all, someone taking up secret cameras could prevent harm, but they could also be caught and reprimanded, or even worse. It is always a nerve-wracking experience.
I was going to begin working inside an animal sanctuary the next morning, while also covertly filming. I would have to go about my business as a volunteer sweeping out bird poo from cages and feeding animals, but I would also be secretly filming some of the people around me, without them realising. Our aim was to expose evidence that some people were mistreating animals and even killing healthy birds.1
It