Well here’s some welcome news about a Scottish police force taking a proactive stance against the criminals who commit raptor persecution. According to the BBC website, Dumfries & Galloway Police have responded to recent raptor persecution incidents by installing covert cameras at some raptor nest sites in the region.
The cameras, supplied by Vemotion Interactive, are rigged to an alarm that activates an alert in the control room at Police HQ. Police Wildlife Crime Officer P.C. Jim Drysdale said: “If anyone is thinking of coming to Dumfries and Galloway to commit crimes against birds of prey, think again, you will be caught and you will be prosecuted“.
Dumfries & Galloway Police’s intent and commitment is admirable and they deserve a lot of credit for taking the lead with this initiative. If only some of the other Scottish police forces would take these crimes so seriously then our raptors would stand a much better chance of survival, at least at their nest sites. It does seem an odd time to be releasing this news story though – at the end of the breeding season! Nevertheless, we wish them well with this endeavour.
It will be interesting to see whether the covert camera footage is accepted as bona fide evidence in a court of law. Several investigations undertaken by RSPB Scotland in recent years, in which they employed covert surveillance techniques, have failed in court because lawyers argued that the covert filming was inadmissable evidence (e.g. see here). All very strange, especially when the technique is accepted as a legitimate tool in England (e.g. see here).
BBC News article here
Alive Radio (Dumfries) article here
Raptor Persecution UK 
See my earlier comment on the Haystoun “camera” case…scottish courts have accepted such evidence from RSPB filming of wildlife crimes – theres no reason why they should not accept similar police footage, as long as its all handled professionally.
I’m not so convinced Dave. Rumours are circulating about a certain individual who has threatened to take legal action against covert filmers – I think you can guess who I mean.
Some of us have never been convinced or scared off by such threats – makes you wonder if some people really want these crimes to stop doesnt it?…Dont be fooled by bogus chat about “only wanting to clarify the legal position” or “trying prevent embarrassing failures in court”. These are just the usual stalling practices by those in the shooting establishment who want any criticism of raptor killing to simply go away.