Law enforcement processing

Why do we process your personal information for law enforcement purposes?

North Yorkshire Police have a statutory duty to uphold the law, prevent crime, bring offenders to justice and protect the public. To do this it is necessary for us to process your personal information under the lawful basis of ‘public interest’ and ‘official authority’. This means we process your personal information for carrying out tasks that are laid down in law and collectively described as the administration of justice.

The Administration of Justice, includes the prevention and detection of crime; apprehension and prosecution of offenders; protecting life and property; preserving order; maintenance of law and order; assisting the public in accordance with force policies and procedures; national security; defending civil proceedings and any duty or responsibility of the police arising from common or statute law.

Whose personal data do we process for law enforcement purposes?

In order to carry out the purposes described above, North Yorkshire Police may obtain, use and disclose personal information relating to a wide variety of individuals including but not limited to:

• Offenders and suspected offenders;
• Witnesses or reporting persons;
• Individuals passing information to North Yorkshire Police; and
• Victims, both current, past and potential;

What type of personal information do we process?

In order to carry out our statutory responsibility we will process varying types of personal data, this includes;

Your name and address; Employment details; Financial details; Racial or ethnic origin; Political opinions; Religious or other beliefs of a similar nature; Physical or mental health condition; Sexual life; Offences and alleged offences; Criminal proceedings, Outcomes and sentences; Cautions; Physical identifiers including DNA, fingerprints, and other genetic samples; Photograph, Sound and visual images; Criminal Intelligence; Information relating to safety; Incidents, and Accident details

We will use only the minimum amount of personal information necessary to fulfil a particular purpose or purposes. Personal information can be information that is held on a computer, in a paper record such as a file or images, but it can also include other types of electronically held information such as CCTV images.

Where do we get the personal information from?

The data we process for law enforcement purposes come from a wide variety of sources, including;

Other law enforcement agencies; HM Revenue and Customs; International law enforcement agencies and bodies; Licensing authorities; Legal representatives; Prosecuting authorities; Solicitors; Courts; Prisons and Young Offender Institutions; Security companies; Partner agencies involved in crime and disorder strategies; Private sector organisations working with the police in anti-crime strategies; Voluntary sector organisations; Approved organisations and people working with the police; Independent Office for Police Conduct; Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary; Governmental agencies and departments; Emergency services such as the Fire Service, National Health Service or Ambulance; Persons arrested; Victims; Witnesses; Relatives, guardians or other persons associated with the individual; North Yorkshire Police CCTV systems; Drone video footage; Body worn video and from correspondence sent to us.

There may be times where we obtain personal information from sources such as other police services and our own police systems such as our crime reporting system known as NICHE.

How do we handle your personal information?

We handle personal information according to the requirements of Part 3 of the new UK Data Protection Law. Your personal information held on our systems and in our files is secure and is accessed on a “need to know” basis by our staff, police officers, or data processors working on our behalf.

We will ensure that your personal information is handled fairly and lawfully with appropriate justification. We will only use your information for lawful purposes and in connection with our requirement to uphold the law, prevent crime, bring offenders to justice, and protect the public.

We will strive to ensure that any personal information used by us or on our behalf is of the highest quality in terms of accuracy, relevance, and adequacy and will not be excessive. We will attempt to keep it as up to date as possible and will protect your data from unauthorised access or loss.

We will regularly review your data to ensure it is still required and we have a lawful purpose to continue to retain it. If there is no lawful purpose then your data will be securely destroyed.

Who do we share your personal information with?

To enable North Yorkshire Police to meet their statutory duty we may be required to share your data with other organisations that process data for a similar reason, in the UK and/or overseas, or in order to keep people safe. These organisations include:

• Other law enforcement agencies (including international agencies);
• Partner agencies working on crime reduction initiatives;
• Partners in the Criminal Justice arena;
• Local government;
• Authorities involved in offender management;
• International agencies concerned with the safeguarding of international and domestic national security;
• Third parties involved with investigations relating to the safeguarding of national security; and
• Other bodies or individuals where it is necessary to prevent harm to individuals.
• Disclosures of personal information is considered on a case-by-case basis, using only the personal information appropriate to a specific purpose and circumstances, and with necessary controls in place.
• Some of the bodies or individuals to which we may disclose personal information are situated outside of the European Union – some of which do not have laws that protect data protection rights as extensively as in the United Kingdom. If we do transfer personal data to such territories, we undertake to ensure that there are appropriate safeguards in place to certify that it is adequately protected as required by the legislation.
• North Yorkshire Police will also disclose personal information to other bodies or individuals when required to do so, or under an act of legislation, a rule of law, and by court order. This may include:
• Serious Fraud Office;
• National Fraud Initiative;
• Courts;

How do we keep your personal information safe?

North Yorkshire Police takes the security of all personal information under our control very seriously. We will comply with the relevant parts of the legislation relating to security, and seek to comply with the College of Policing Information Assurance authorised practice, relevant parts of the ISO27001 Information Security Standard and the Home Office security controls.

We will ensure that appropriate policy, training, technical and procedural measures are in place. These will include, but are not limited to, ensuring our buildings are secure and protected by adequate physical means. The areas restricted to our police officers and staff, are only accessible by those holding the appropriate identification, and have legitimate reasons for entry. We carry out audits of our buildings security to ensure they are secure. Our systems meet appropriate industry and government security standards.

We carry out regular audits and inspections, to protect our manual and electronic information systems from data loss and misuse, and only permit access to them when there is a legitimate reason to do so. Our standard operating procedures and policies contain strict guidelines as to what use may be made of any personal information contained within them. These procedures are reviewed regularly to ensure our security of information is kept up-to-date.

How long will you keep my personal information?

North Yorkshire Police keeps your personal information as long as is necessary for the particular purpose or purposes for which it is held. Personal information which is placed on the Police National Computer is retained, reviewed and deleted in accordance with the Retention Guidelines for Nominal Records on the Police National Computer

Other records that contain your personal information and which was processed for law enforcement purposes are retained in accordance with the College of Policing guidance on the Management of Police Information and North Yorkshire Police Record Retention  Schedule.

What are my Rights?

A key area of change in the new Data Protection Act relates to individuals’ rights, the law refreshers existing rights by clarifying and extending them and introduces new rights.

However your information rights will be dependent on the reason why and how the data was collected and why it is being used.

Your information rights in relation to your personal data processed for law enforcement purposes are:

• Right to be Informed – This places an obligation upon North Yorkshire Police to tell you how we obtain your personal information and describe how we will use, retain, store and who we may share it with.
• We have written this Privacy Notice to explain how we will use your personal information and tell you what your rights are under the legislation
• Right of Access – This is commonly known as subject access and is the right which allows you access to your personal data and supplementary information, however it is subject to certain restrictions.
• Right to Request Rectification – You are entitled to have personal data rectified if it is inaccurate or incomplete.
• Right to Erasure and Right to Restriction – You have the right to request the deletion or removal of your personal data and/or the right to ‘block’ or restrict the processing of your personal data where there is no compelling reason for its continued processing.
• Rights Relating to Automated Decision Making – Automated individual decision making and profiling is a decision made by automated means without any human involvement.

This version of our Privacy Notice was last updated on 24th June 2022