One-hour processing. What a development that was.
No week-long wait for the contents of the film canister to be revealed, just a 60-minute sojourn for the hard copy evidence of the weekend’s boozy shenanigans to emerge from the chemical soup of the fast photo shops which proliferated town centres back in the day.
If that incriminating evidence needed to be swept away, there was only one copy which had to be ripped up to spare the blushes.
It’s different now of course, in an era when the best mobile phone cameras can probably outpunch the capabilities of kit used by professional snappers of that time.
And before you can say Snapchat or Facebook, your drunken misdemeanours are out there for the world to see. Forever.
The answer, of course, remains the same now as it was then. If you want to avoid being caught on camera, don’t do silly things.
Which doesn’t seem to be advice being heeded at Angus skip sites.
Just six months after recycling centre staff were issued with body cameras because of the increasing torrent of verbal and physical abuse to which they were subjected, it has emerged the red mist has been descending even more frequently at local dumps.
Frustrated by new rules and opening hours changes, punters are flying off the handle at what they presumably perceive to be jobsworth operatives.
That is clearly not acceptable, but the dichotomy which has also come to light is that while the council – quite rightly – has added bodycams to the armoury of protection for their staff, there does not seem much appetite to take offenders to task over their behaviour.
Although worried enough about the problem to invest eight grand into kitting out staff with the all-seeing eye, it seems there hasn’t been a single skip site case in the past three years which has made it to the courts.
A successful prosecution would be a good way of sending out a zero tolerance message to anyone who thinks it’s okay to lash out at someone simply doing their job, so let’s hope the video nasties now being filmed at Angus skip sites may get a viewing before a sheriff.
