V Festival (Staffs) goes 'big brother'

The Weston Park, Staffordshire leg of V Festival is to have an even stronger policing policy this year, with the aim of targeting troublemakers.

In previous years, Staffordshire Police have used Automatic Number Plate Recognition to target known offenders, as well as using palm-wipe drug testing kits on attendees. Although anyone asked to be drug tested has the right to refuse, the police can regard the refusal as reasonable suspicion of possession of drugs, leading to a full search.

This year, they plan to use facial recognition equipment. On-site CCTV cameras will be linked to an intelligence database of known offenders’ photos and return facial matches to officers. The police will also be sending letters to over 250 criminals and known offenders warning them to stay away from V before the festival starts.

Chief Inspector Jon Drake, one of the event commanders, said: “Violence of any kind will not be tolerated and people who get involved in disorder – or any type of crime - can expect to be ejected from the site. A small minority of offenders will not be allowed to spoil the weekend for the tens of thousands of law-abiding music fans.

Andy Redhead, V Festival Organiser, said: “The safety of V Festival fans is of utmost importance to us. We therefore fully support the efforts of Staffordshire Police to ensure that the festival remains a trouble-free zone, for the enjoyment of those that come to see some quality performances and soak up on the great atmosphere that V is well known for.”

Some tickets for both legs of V Festival are still available. Day tickets are priced at £52.50 for either day, weekend tickets at £90, and the weekend with camping tickets at £110. Some Campervan tickets are also available, and car parking tickets. To buy the tickets (as available), click here.

V Festival has acts including headliners Oasis, Scissor Sisters & Franz Ferdinand, Maroon 5, Embrace, Athlete, Idlewild, and many more. For the (so far) confirmed line-ups - including day and stage information (where available) - click for Chelmsford or Staffordshire.

eFestivals comment
We hope that the police database to be used at V is 100% accurate, otherwise the law-abiding might encounter difficulties. As the tragic shooting in London two weeks ago showed, police intelligence sometimes get things wrong.

Surveillance of everyday life is becoming more common as time goes by. The government already has firm plans for a massive central database of information on every citizen with the database linked to all other government information systems, and the citizen having no control over the data held on them. The public end of these database plans are ID cards.

As long as such systems work perfectly with error-free information on each citizen, then the innocent have nothing to fear. But as no-one has ever designed a perfect computer system, and the information to be held on each citizen will be managed by humans (who always make mistakes), this isn't something we should walk into lightly.

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