150,000 Police Records Accidentally Deleted

[Delbow 682]

BBC article here

 

This is pretty worrying. Losing DNA evidence that may have been gathered while investigating serious crimes will hinder the ability to link suspects to other offences. It will also affect enhanced disclosures via the Disclosure and Barring Service (that social care and health professionals, teachers, childcare staff etc have to provide) because the enhanced disclosure doesn't just provide record of conviction, but also records of police contact. That can be particularly relevant with domestic abuse, where police can be called multiple times to an address but don't arrest the perpetrator because the victim is too afraid to make a statement.

[geared 301]

They shouldn't be holding this information indefinitely though?

 

These are people who are innocent after all?

Edited January 15, 2021 by geared

[andyofborg 11]

34 minutes ago, geared said:

They shouldn't be holding this information indefinitely though?

 

These are people who are innocent after all?

no one is innocent, everyone is guilty of something.....

[RollingJ 1,988]

10 minutes ago, andyofborg said:

no one is innocent, everyone is guilty of something.....

Yep, especially on this forum if you don't agree with the self-appointed 'experts'😀

[geared 301]

48 minutes ago, andyofborg said:

no one is innocent, everyone is guilty of something.....

 

Didn't the police themselves get taken to court over the mass storage of (innocent) peoples information though?

Thought I remembered a privacy group doing it a number of years ago.

 

Edited January 15, 2021 by geared

[lobster 54]

Don't they back  up their records - that's a basic 

[RollingJ 1,988]

Quite probably @lobster - but that little detail would get in the way of a good 'story' - i.e. bit of fiction.

[Baron99 772]

The BBC are now reporting that 213,000 records have been deleted, according to The National Police Chiefs' Council. 

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-55684320

 

I have a grandchild and who works here in Sheffield for the Home Office & an email went round last Tuesday claiming that 30,000 records were deleted.  So this seems to be an escalating situation. 

 

[Jim Hardie 517]

It’s 400,000 now.

[RollingJ 1,988]

I still find it VERY hard to believe there are no back-up files available .

[Delbow 682]

On 15/01/2021 at 12:11, geared said:

They shouldn't be holding this information indefinitely though?

 

These are people who are innocent after all?

There are certainly some rights issues with how the police retain some data, and with some of it it's probably a good thing that it's been wiped. But it now turns out with this deletion that it includes information that was supposed to be retained indefinitely because it relates to people convicted of serious offences. 

[Organgrinder 1,946]

If they are too dozy to back up highly important data,  they shouldn't be allowed grown up computers.