Rob Jerrard was an enthusiast of country living. 

A thought that crosses the mind is that of Butterfly Watching and Rob's love of Bird Watching.

When one considers it, both of these hobbies/ activities are  very well suited to Police Officers, retired or active, because it take an enormous amount of Planning, Preparation, Patience and Disciplined Stillness to Study these  Creatures and also to ensure you are watching what you think you are watching -for hours and hours-  is just like Covert Surveillance  in Policing (smiles).

Surveillance is the Systematic Observation, either Overtly or Covertly, of Places, Persons, or Things, by Visual, Aural, Electronic, Photographic, or other means.

For Law Enforcement purposes, the  term surveillance is defined by section 48(1) of the UK's Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 to include monitoring, observation or listening to persons, their movements, their conversations, or their other activities or communications and whilst recording anything so monitored, observed, or listened to.

Surveillance may also include the interception of a communication in the course of its transmission by means of a postal service or telecommunication system-but it does not include the use of a 'covert' human intelligence source for obtaining or recording any information which is disclosed in the presence of that source. It is regulated by the 2000 Act mentioned above and the Codes of Practice issued under that Act. 

The  UK Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 is to ensure that surveillance by the Police and other Agencies complies with the European Convention on Human Rights 1948, adopted into the UK Human Rights Act 1998.

Police will not be liable for conduct that is carried out in accordance with the authorisation to which it relates or is incidental to the authorised conduct.

Authorised conduct means three types of conduct: 

directed surveillance,

intrusive surveillance and

the conduct and use of covert human intelligence sources.

(Just saying. This is my observation of the bird-watching hobby activity  of a retired Police Inspector).