Police hunt man in hard hat and high-vis over Ulez camera theft in crackdown on so-called Blade Runners

18 August 2023, 09:38

Police are hunting a man who wore a high-viz jacket and hard hat to fiddle with a Ulez camera as it cracks down on vandalisation.

The devices track cars entering the low emissions zone and charge drivers £12.50 a day if their vehicle doesn't comply with standards.

They are being targeted by so-called "blade runners" opposed to Sadiq Khan's scheme which will soon cover all of London.

It has triggered an arms race between vandals who are finding ways to attack cameras that are usually placed on poles several feet off the ground and authorities who have resorted to cladding some in armour.

Read more: Keir Starmer clashes with Sadiq Khan over Ulez as he insists there are 'other ways' to cut pollution

Police branded the damage "unacceptable" and vowed to find those behind hundreds of anti-Ulez crimes, which include reports of theft of the cameras and damage to their cables.

Detectives released a photo of a man wearing a hard hat and a high-viz jacket working who was pictured on CCTV fiddling with a Ulez camera.

Officers want to speak to him over the theft of the cameras.

"These are clearly unacceptable acts of criminality and we have a team of officers investigating and identifying those responsible," the Met's Commander Owain Richards said.

"We are providing a proportionate policing response, balancing these incidents against the wide range of operational demand and crime we must respond to across London.

"We are working closely with Transport for London and alongside our investigation into offences already committed we are supporting them identify new ways to prevent further cameras from being damaged or stolen.

"We are continually reviewing where we need to focus our efforts and we will continue to do that over the coming weeks to ensure we are providing the service Londoners expect from us."

Read more: 'Absolute hatred!': Mother of four discusses Ulez after Keir Starmer and Sadiq Khan clash

A total of 288 crimes related to Ulez cameras have been recorded by the Met, including 185 instances of cables being damaged, 164 cameras being stolen and 38 reports of the devices getting obscured.

Some of those crimes could overlap and relate to one camera.

Vandals who wreck the cameras have dubbed themselves "blade runners" and vowed to keep attacking them for as long as it takes.

"We are going to take down every single one no matter what," one anti-Ulez "blade runner" said earlier in the year, claiming he had brought down at least 30 by April.

"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. 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."

Recently, footage emerged of a Ulez opponent damaging them with a pole and and cutters at dark.

A group of people eating at a restaurant watch on but nobody challenges him as he tackles two cameras.

The Met has launched a dedicated operation to stop the vandalism called Eremon.

Sadiq Khan is expanding Ulez to cover all of London from August 29. He recently won a High Court case after Tory councils challenged him.

'I'm simply unwilling to delay' Ulez expansion, says Sadiq Khan as financial aid is announced

The mayor of London believes Ulez is vital to tackling air pollution in the capital and preventing premature deaths.

He has claimed most vehicles seen on London's streets in an average day are compliant and earmarked tens of millions of pounds in additional funding to expand a scrappage scheme.

That is designed to help people, businesses and charities with upgrading non-compliant cars.

But the scheme has proved so controversial even Sir Keir Starmer has refused to offer it support, instead saying cities need to find ways of tackling air pollution that don't affect the worst-off.

The Tories turned the election campaign in Boris Johnson's old seat of Uxbridge and South Ruislip into a referendum on Ulez, holding on to it by hundreds of votes when other by-elections proved to be bruising defeats.

It has led Conservatives to consider whether they should aim to be more pro-motorist to win more support amid dreadful opinion polls ahead of the next election.