Police Clash With Data Watchdog
The most senior police officers in the country condemned the Government’s Information Commissioner yesterday, accusing him of undermining the safety of children by ordering the destruction of valuable criminal intelligence. The Association of Chief Police Officers said Richard Thomas had demanded that police forces delete convictions for violence and allegations of sexual assault from computer and intelligence files in the interests of data protection and civil liberties.Acpo said the commissioner’s repeated interventions in record-keeping showed that he “clearly misunderstands” everyday police work. It had been “frankly absurd” for him to claim after the Soham murders trial that he never interfered with police record-keeping.”He wants fewer offence details recorded on the police national computer, not more,” it said.
