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Request
Internal Procedures for Using ANPR in Vehicle Stops:
Q1. You mentioned that North Yorkshire Police has ANPR Policy and Procedures in place. Could you please provide more details on what these policies entail without disclosing sensitive operational information?
Q2. Regarding manual entry into the ANPR system, you stated that specific instructions are given to relevant staff. Are these instructions publicly available or can they be shared without compromising operational security?
GDPR Compliance:
Q3. You referred to a Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA) as part of the National ANPR Service. Is this DPIA document publicly available? If so, how can I access it?
Q4. The annual self-assessment against the guiding principles from the Surveillance Camera
Commissioner is an important compliance measure. Are the results or summaries of these assessments publicly available?
Data Retention and Security:
Q5. You mentioned that data is retained locally for a period of 7 days before automatic deletion and up to 12 months on the National ANPR Service Camera Management Server unless preserved under specific legal provisions. Could you elaborate on what these legal provisions are and under what circumstances data would be preserved beyond the initial retention periods?
Extent and Result of Searches to Locate Information
To locate the information relevant to your request searches were conducted within North Yorkshire Police. I can confirm that the information you have requested is held by North Yorkshire Police.
Decision
I have today decided to disclose the following information to you.
Q1. The North Yorkshire Police ANPR Policy & Procedures are published on our website using the following link:
https://www.northyorkshire.police.uk/foi-ai/af/accessing-information/published-items/?q=Anpr
As such, this information is exempt from disclosure pursuant to Section 21 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (the Act) – information accessible to the applicant by other means. Please see the below exemption explanation.
Q2. The training packages cover policing tactics and as such, this information is exempt under Section 31 of the Act – law enforcement. Please see the below exemption explanations.
Q3. The National ANPR Service DPIA is publicly available using the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-anpr-service-data-protection-impact-assessment and is therefore exempt from disclosure under Section 21 of the Act.
Q4. No.
Q5. Please see the below information which is publicly available using the following link:
National ANPR standards - GOV.UK (specifically sections 6 (ANPR Legislation) and 6.1 (ANPR Data: Legal Basis)).
Exemption Explanation
Section 17 of the Act requires North Yorkshire Police, when refusing to provide such information (because the information is exempt) to provide you the applicant with a notice which: (a) states that fact, (b) specifies the exemption in question and (c) states (if that would not otherwise be apparent) why the exemption applies.
Section 21 – Information Reasonably Accessible by Other Means
Section 21 is an absolute class based exemption and I am not required to consider the harm or public interest when applying this exemption.
Pursuant to Section 17(1) of the Act this letter acts as a Refusal Notice in response to your request.
Please note that systems used for recording information are not generic, nor are the procedures used locally in capturing the data. It should be noted therefore that this force’s response to your questions should not be used for comparison purposes with any other responses you may receive.
Section 31 – Law enforcement
Section 31 is a prejudice-based qualified exemption and there is a requirement to articulate the harm as well as carrying out a public interest test.
Evidence of Harm
As you may be aware, disclosure under FOIA is a release to the public at large. Whilst not questioning the motives of the applicant, releasing any information held around ANPR training material, would allow criminals to note what capacity and tactical capabilities the force had, allowing them to target specific areas of the UK to conduct their criminal/terrorist activities. This would lead to an increase in harm of attacks and compromise Law Enforcement. This would be to the detriment of providing an efficient policing service and a failure in providing a duty of care to all members of the public.
Information that undermines the operational integrity of the police will adversely affect public safety and have a negative impact on both national security and law enforcement.
Factors favouring disclosure under Section 31
Releasing information held relating to ANPR training would provide an insight into the police resources and enable the public to have a better understanding of the effectiveness of the police.
Factors against disclosure under Section 31
It has been recorded that FOIA releases are monitored by criminals and terrorists and so releasing policing training material would undermine and compromise law enforcement and it would also hinder any local, regional or national operations.
It can be argued that there are significant risks associated with providing information in relation to any aspects that can assist criminal planning and that any nation’s security arrangements, by releasing the information, may reveal the relative vulnerability of what we may be trying to protect.
The Police Service would not wish to reveal resource information that would undermine the law enforcement operations and would in turn place the public at a greater risk.
Balance test
Whilst there is a public interest in the transparency of policing activites and providing assurance that the police service is appropriately prepared, there is a very strong public interest in safeguarding the integrity of police operations in the highly sensitive areas such as ANPR which is an integral part of crime prevention.
As much as there is public interest in knowing that policing activity is appropriate and balanced this will only be overridden in exceptional circumstances. It is our opinion that for these issues the balancing test for exempting your request for ANPR training material is not made out.