West Midlands Police "treated people like idiots" over the way more than 200 surveillance cameras were installed in parts of Birmingham with large Muslim populations, an MP has said.

The cameras - covert and overt - were put up earlier this year and were paid for with £3m of government money put aside for tackling terrorism.

But the communities were in uproar after they were not consulted, prompting the force to apologise and instigate an independent review by Thames Valley Police into what happened.

The findings were highly critical, saying the force paid little attention to "compliance with the legal or regulatory framework" and relations between the Muslim community and police had been set back 10 years...
(bbc)