Being involved in a Police incident is already a very stressful time in your life. To then be informed that the Police have not protected your data causes further unnecessary worry and distress.
The Police have a duty of care to protect us but all too often our data is not being looked after as well as it should.
We have been contacted many times by clients whose personal data has been breached by the Police force dealing with their incident.
We have assisted our clients in the following situations:
- When a DVD containing footage of several police interviews was lost in the post. This can happen when a Police force sends out confidential information without using a secure postal method.
- When an email containing very sensitive information is sent to the wrong recipient. This can happen if a staff member has not received sufficient training on the computer system.
- When personal data is accessed by unauthorised personnel and information is then shared with others. Unfortunately, this does happen and we have worked on many cases where a staff member has unlawfully accessed a case for personal reasons.
- When a Police Officer has taken a picture of the Police database revealing personal details and posted it on-line. This is happening more and more frequently due to the increase in social media platforms.
We have found that on many occasions these types of breaches are as a result of human error and staff being inadequately trained.
Data breaches of this kind are not regularly reported in the news so people are not always aware of their data protection rights.
You can read more about Police data breaches here, or get in touch with our team if your data has been breached by the Police.