Operation Snapshot ... Operation Snapshot was a further intelligence gathering exercise on Environmental Protesters and Travellers but now organised on a national basis. Also, the ‘Rave Scene’ was now included. All designed to establish a database of personal details, names, nicknames and vehicle registration numbers. “Now every traveller’s vehicle is logged on computer, along with its whereabouts. An estimate of the number of persons in a convoy is included, together with details of any targeted individuals. Many of the vehicles and their occupants have been photographed”.20 Undercover operations were carried out and yet more photographs taken. This information was used as a backbone for an on-going intelligence operation begun by the Southern Intelligence Unit (SIU), operated from Devizes in Wiltshire (fancy that! coincidentally, the same base as ‘Operation Solstice’). In the minutes of a meeting held at Devizes on March 30th 1993, the objectives of the operation included: • Looking for a system to prevent Forces such as West Mercia (Castlemorton), being initially left bereft of intelligence. • Needed to develop a system whereby intelligence could be taken into the control room, and the most up-to-date intelligence was to hand. • To give Commanders immediate access to the most up-to-date intelligence, enabling them to develop the best strategy to combat the illegal activity which accompanied such events. After a short period the Northern New Age Traveller Co-ordination Unit, designed to cover the north of Britain, was established and operated from Penrith in Cumbria. The meeting was attended by constabulary representatives from Bedfordshire, Avon and Somerset, Devon and Cornwall, Dorset, Gloucestershire, Dyfed-Powys, Cambridgeshire, Hertfordshire, Kent,
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