Activists destroying London's car emissions camera to protest tolls

Many motorists complain about London’s Ultra-Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) cameras online, but a group of activists called Blade Runners is taking action. They’ve started removing or otherwise disabling the cameras, which send drivers fines, and they plan to take them all down.

Announced by former British prime minister Boris Johnson in 2015, when he was the mayor of London, and implemented by his successor Sadiq Kahn in 2019, the ULEZ program aims to keep older vehicles out of the English capital and the surrounding areas on account that they pollute. It currently covers 236 square miles, and it will become even bigger on August 29 in spite of protests and a court challenge.

Calling on law enforcement officials to keep track of who drives what into the ULEZ wouldn’t be realistic, so government officials set up a network of thousands of cameras that scan every car’s registration number to access emissions-related information, such as the registration date and the engine it’s powered by. If the vehicle isn’t compliant, the system automatically sends a £12.50 (about $16) fine to the registered owner. As explained by The Drive, the cameras operate 24 hours a day and seven days a week with the exception of Christmas.

It’s this system that the Blade Runners are fighting back against.

“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,” an anonymous Blade Runners member told British newspaper Daily Mail.

As activists in France proved during the Gilets Jaunes movement, taking down a traffic camera (whether it’s monitoring your speed or your car’s emissions) isn’t particularly difficult. Blade Runners members sometimes simply unbolt the camera. “The tools they use to install them are the ones we use to remove it,” the anonymous member said. Other times, they damage them with a hammer, apply paint over them, or disable the circuit that powers them. The number of cameras disabled, removed, or otherwise damaged depends largely on who you ask.

Kahn’s office claims it’s aware of 43 acts of camera-related vandalism as of March 21, 2023. The anonymous member who spoke to the Daily Mail, a father in his 40s, claims to have personally stolen 34 cameras and adds that the group has disabled “hundreds.” Blade Runners operates in secrecy, so statistics are vague, but it claims to have over 100 members scattered across London and adds that it’s growing.

“We are going to take down every single [camera] no matter what,” the anonymous Blade Runners member said. “Everything we are doing is for our own freedoms. It’s the tip of the iceberg. We do not live in a democracy. We will fight with everything we have for our freedoms.”

London officials warned the Blader Runners are engaging in “unacceptable” vandalism. If caught, the activists face up to four years in jail. Transport for London told Daily Mail that it has started rolling out an updated camera model that’s allegedly more difficult to disable.