svoncin

So, not the UK then. Thought as much.

Whatever issue you have with the law enforcement people you apparently worked alongside for a while, please refrain from blindly transferring this onto UK police personnel whose work you have zero insight into.

Really, which country? Presumably not the UK.

He worked on the technical support for targeted surveillance of serious organised crime and terror threats. So if you look at this realistically, no, his kit wouldn't have been used to spy on people who weren't at least suspected of being dodgy.

That is a very ignorant opinion to be flaunting with such confidence.

You will hopefully be relieved to learn that TSOs specialise in covert evidence-gathering technologies for serious crime investigations, and are not making machines to blow your legs off or shoot your face in.

They're part of the teams taking down human trafficking rings, violent gangs involved in the drugs trade, terrorist cells, and suchlike. The kind of high impact police work that helps make vulnerable people's lives safer.

Definitely, it just makes me respect the Raspberry Pi team even more than I did already. Sticking up for their new colleague, and shutting down all those pompous whiners with ego-puncturing flippancy. I love to see it.

So I found the original thread (https://raspberrypi.social/@Raspberry_Pi/109477121398103132), and I must say these irreverent responses from the Raspberry Pi account are raising a smile from me, it's refreshing to see someone not taking those po-faced complainer types seriously.

> “I was a Technical Surveillance Officer for 15 years, so I built stuff to hide video, audio, and other covert gear,” Roberts is quoted as saying in the post. “You really don’t want your sensitive police equipment discovered, so I’d disguise it as something else, like a piece of street furniture or a household item. The variety of tools and equipment I used then really shaped what I do today.”

People are really complaining about this? This is incredibly cool from a maker perspective. And I bet he caught a load of very dodgy people with his kit too. This guy sounds awesome, what a splendid hire.