Claiming compensation for a police data breach.
Police forces have an obligation to ensure that personal data is protected and kept secure. Personal data refers to information which is able to identify an individual or may be combined with other pieces of information to identify someone. This may include information such as name, home address, date of birth, passport number, national insurance number and so on. However, on occasion police forces may breach individual’s data which may give rise to a civil claim for compensation.
A police data breach claim can arise from a range of different circumstances, such as:
- The police sending confidential information to an incorrect addresses
- The failure to redact personal information on disclosed documents
- The police disclosing incidents to third parties with no legal purpose, such as for the prevention or detection of crime
- Showing body worn video footage for police training purposes without the featured individuals’ consent.
- Police officers who unlawfully access police databases for individual’s information when they do not have a legitimate purpose to do so.
- Data leaks due to inadequate IT security systems.
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has recently criticised West Midlands Police after the force incorrectly linked two people’s records as they happen to have the same name and date of birth. Both of these individuals had come to police attention, one being a victim and the other being both a victim and a suspect. However, due to the linked records, the police force failed to make a clear distinction between the two individuals. The linked records caused numerous issues between 2020 – 2022, such as police officers attending the wrong home address and school of the incorrect individual’s child. The ICO found that the force breached data protection and they failed to stop the inaccurate linking of records and failed to rectify the errors in a timely manner.
Other examples include Gloucester Police Force being fined in 2018, after sending a bulk email which revealed the identities of child abuse victims, some of which had lifetime anonymity. Greater Manchester Police were fined after an individual stole a memory stick, which was not password protected or encrypted, which contained personal details of over 1,000 individuals.
If you have been the victim of a police data breach in England or Wales, contact our team of specialists for a free case assessment and information on our popular no win no fee funding arrangement.