FOI 356/25 Body Worn Footage

Enquiry Reference: 356-25                                                                                               

I write in connection with regards to your Freedom of Information request.  Below is your request and our response.

I make this request because I want to better understand policing practices and to gain an insight into the experiences that police officers have at work.  I'm intending to, through observing the communications between police officers and members of the public, become more aware of the challenges faced by police officers when doing their job.  I also want additionally to myself, to be able to help other people develop a clearer understanding of the law and perspectives of parliament.  I myself have developed a greater  appreciation for the committed efforts of law enforcement officers and have realised that I have not understood the role that the police have in helping society be a much safer place, I personally value the contribution police officers dedicate to society; and believe with the spread of information revealing everyday occurrences more people will also develop a greater appreciation and value the work that police officers do.  And serve to influence people to re-evaluate the choices we make; I would like to request copies of footage taken from body worn cameras, particularly footage of people committing driving offences and people involved in domestic disputes, people causing public disturbances, for example how police officers help to resolve drunk and disorderly disputes by people exiting pubs and clubs, in neighbourhoods and town centres.  I am grateful for the time taken to read my request, thank you, your efforts are greatly valued.

Section 1 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 places two duties on public authorities.  Unless exemptions apply, the first duty at Section 1(1) (a) is to confirm or deny whether the information specified in a request is held.  The second duty at Section 1(1) (b) is to disclose information that has been confirmed as being held.  Where exemptions are relied upon, Section 17 of the Freedom of Information Act requires that I provide the applicant with a notice which: a) states that fact b) specifies the exemption(s) in question and c) state (if that would not otherwise be apparent) why the exemption applies.

Cleveland Police can confirm it holds the information relevant to your request as the duty in Section 1(1) (a) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 does not apply, by virtue of the following exemptions:

Section 40(2) Personal Information

Section 40(2) is an absolute exemption which does not require me to evidence the harm that disclosure would cause and does not require consideration of a public interest test in justification of its use.

By way of explanation to you I would point out the following: Under Section 40(2) of The Freedom of Information Act, information is exempt information if it constitutes personal information of which the applicant is not the data subject. In order to be considered exempt personal information, the information must satisfy one of two conditions. It must either be information which would be exempt from disclosure to the data subject under the provisions of the Data Protection Act 2018, or disclosure of the information would contravene any of the Data Protection Principles or cause damage or distress to the data subject.

On this occasion the information requested is clearly third-party personal information and would contravene the first principle of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) - lawfulness, fairness, and transparency, which are the likely expectations of the data subjects. In that, would members of the public expect Cleveland Police to release their video footage  to third party persons unknow to themselves.

Since the release of information under The Freedom of Information Act 2000, is release to the world at large, and not just to the individual applicant,  I believe to do so would amount to unfair processing and therefore is exempt from disclosure.

Having made enquiries within the Force above is all the information we hold.  Please note that all statistical data supplied in relation to Freedom of Information requests is a snapshot of data held at the time the request was received by the Freedom of Information office and is subject to constant change/updates.

The Cleveland Police response to your request is unique and it should be noted that Police Forces do not use generic systems or identical procedures to capture and record data therefore responses from Cleveland Police should not be used as a comparison with any other force response you receive.

If you are not satisfied with this response or any actions taken in dealing with your request, you have the right to request an independent internal review of your case under our review procedure. The Freedom of Information Code of Practice (see below link) states that a request for internal review should be made within 20 working days of the date on this response or 40 working days if extenuating circumstances to account for the delay can be evidenced. Public authorities are not obliged to accept internal reviews after this date.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/freedom-of-information-code-of-practice

Yours sincerely

Information Rights Decision Maker