‘Just cut the wires’: why UK conspiracy theorists are destroying traffic scanners
Sensors that monitor vehicle volume are said to be ‘electronic assault weapons’ by the ‘Blade Runners’ group At the top of an extendable ladder on a quiet street of Ilfracombe, in Devon, an older woman dressed smartly in cropped trousers, a red rain jacket and matching red socks is chopping at some wires at the top of a set of traffic lights with a small pair of pliers. A grey-haired man holding…
In Ilfracombe, Devon, a group known as the "Blade Runners" have been targeting traffic scanners installed above traffic lights. These sensors, which monitor vehicle volume and pedestrian numbers, are being destroyed by conspiracy theorists who believe they are part of a sinister surveillance system. The alleged devices are said to carry out mass surveillance, cause cancer, dementia, and even sudden death.
The "Blade Runners" are not the first to target these sensors. In May, Cambridge police appealed for information after nearly 200 traffic detector units were damaged, and in Sleaford, Lincolnshire, 10 units were vandalised in a single week. Susan Grant-Muller, a professor at the University of Leeds's Institute for Transport Studies, finds this hostility puzzling, as the technology has been around since the late 1970s and is generally only used in areas with traffic flow issues.
She emphasizes that the cameras do not record personal information. To Clare Birchall, a professor of contemporary culture at King's College London, these attacks represent a broader fear of surveillance and loss of freedom, part of a larger conspiracy known as "the great reset."
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