Are there any Police video unit operators on this forum?

[Carl Walters]

This might be a long shot, but I have a project in the pipeline and could ideally do with speaking to anyone who is currently working within a Police Dept video unit.

If there is anyone could you please PM me and I can send you details of what i'm needing to know, I prefer not to discuss it on the open forum for obvious reasons. Discretion is 100% guaranteed, although I won't be asking for anything confidential or security related, it's purely advice.

Thanks in anticipation.

Carl

[Ian Stark]

Carl,

For some reason I can't PM you. I am working overseas at the moment, on a client's network so I don't know if that heas any affect?!

Anyway, maybe you could PM me with a personal email address and I can respond to that. ian@videoit.uk.com

I don't work for a Police video unit but I have made a corporate about one (Thames Valley Police, last year) and MAY have some contacts. Let me know what you're looking for.

Cheers,

Ian . . .

[Carl Walters]

Thanks Ian, email sent.

Just to clarify my original post, i'm actually wanting to speak to people working within the Police video units.

Carl

[Ian Stark]

Sure, understood. Having made the film last year I may still have contacts (within the unit) that I could put you in touch with. I stress MAY!! Not getting email for some reason at the moment but will check when back at the hotel. Cheers. Ian . . .

[Carl Walters]

Hi Ian,

Hope you've got my email by now, appreciate the offer, the email will explain the reasons for needing to contact someone actually in the unit.

Regards Carl

[Gary Nattrass]

Why dont you just contact your local Police video unit and ask them directly?

Remember the Police are there to serve us and they are always very keen to promote their image and the good work that they do.

Going underhand and without their knowledge may actually be more problematic if you then are trying to shoot material without their co-operation.

Any Pro video operation would do this and they dont bite and in my experience have always been very good at helping out.

P.S. Of course for security you will have to prove that you are a legit operation.

[Ian Stark]

Gary, I didn't get the impression Carl is trying to find a back door, just was reluctant to disclose the nature of his question on an open forum. Not sure there is anything underhand going on here.

Carl, sorry, email not getting through (well, some is and some isn't, which is infuriating!). I am back in the UK next week if you want to try again. Sorry for the confusion.

[Carl Walters]

Originally Posted by Gary Nattrass

Why dont you just contact your local Police video unit and ask them directly?

Remember the Police are there to serve us and they are always very keen to promote their image and the good work that they do.

Going underhand and without their knowledge may actually be more problematic if you then are trying to shoot material without their co-operation.

Any Pro video operation would do this and they dont bite and in my experience have always been very good at helping out.

P.S. Of course for security you will have to prove that you are a legit operation.

Gary, i've sent you an email sent to clarify situation.. certainly nothing going on underhanded and is with the full knowledge of the Force concerned. I am fully aware of co-operation and security. Not many forces within the UK have a dedicated Video Unit, any video such as evidential stuff is usually covered by SOCO (Scenes of Crime). Hence the reason for this post, possibly a member in the States may reply as a lot of their Police Dept's have dedicated specialist units and hopefully some of them may be members on here.
Carl

[Carl Walters]

Originally Posted by Ian Stark

Gary, I didn't get the impression Carl is trying to find a back door, just was reluctant to disclose the nature of his question on an open forum. Not sure there is anything underhand going on here.

Carl, sorry, email not getting through (well, some is and some isn't, which is infuriating!). I am back in the UK next week if you want to try again. Sorry for the confusion.

Ian, I sent it through the link on the forum. I'm off to Paris first thing in the morning, if you've not received it when I get back in a few days i'll send it again.

Carl

[Gary Nattrass]

Sorry I wasnt implying that Carl was doing anything underhand but I still think that contacting the guys directly rather than trying to do it through an open public forum is the correct way to do things like this.
Didnt receive you e-mail BTW

[Carl Walters]

Originally Posted by Gary Nattrass

Sorry I wasnt implying that Carl was doing anything underhand but I still think that contacting the guys directly rather than trying to do it through an open public forum is the correct way to do things like this.
Didnt receive you e-mail BTW

Gary, I think there may be a problem with the email system on the forum. I've sent you a lengthy explanation to explain what i'm looking at doing. I've tried to send one to you and one to Ian, both of you have not received them.

Mod's/admin perhaps you can look into that.

Okay to keep things very brief Gary, i'm in the "job" and have been tasked with looking into setting up a dedicated unit. There are not many British forces which have a dedicated unit, but most American PD's have them. I WASN"T wanting to discuss the logistics on a public forum as stated in my first post, all I wanted to do was to establish contact. As this forum is used by thousands of video enthusiasts and it's free, then it was an obvious choice rather than spend a lot of money and time ringing every different force. I remember some time ago some guy's from a US Unit posting images of their set ups and was hoping they might still be around to be contacted.

So are any of you guy's still around?