Police Scotland to delete millions of vehicle records over illegality concerns

Police Scotland’s database was created from Automatic Number Plate Recognition cameras placed throughout Scotland.

A freedom of information request revealed that the single force has retained records dating from as far back as 2012 – without any legal basis. Data protection legislation prohibits forces from keeping records not linked to criminal activity for more than two years.

However, senior officers were aware they may have been in violation of the rules and have confirmed they will delete the historical records.

FOI requests indicate Police Scotland has kept about half a billion vehicle movement records which are more than two years old and have no connection to any suspicious activity. In June 2015, it was tracking 1,894 “vehicles of interest.”

The software used to operate the system costs the taxpayer £68,000 a year and critics of the system say that it can reveal a significant amount of information about innocent people – particularly when combined with other information held by public bodies.

A spokesperson for Police Scotland said the force plans to delete the older data but conceded they had not worked out what would be deleted.

They said: “ANPR is a very useful tool in tackling criminality by serious and organised groups and terrorists, as well as in dealing with motoring offences, and a number of significant criminal prosecutions have been secured with evidence gained from using this technology.

“Data from ANPR is only generally available to Police Scotland officers for 90 days, and if required after this period a special case has to be made and approval given by an officer holding the rank of superintendent or above.

“Police Scotland has identified that some of the ANPR data collected in the past does not meet our current retention policy. We are now working towards identifying data which no longer needs to be held for evidential and investigative purposes in order to delete it.”

Privacy campaigner and trainee lawyer, Pol Clementsmith told Scottish Legal News: “Unfortunately, Police Scotland have previous form in the arena of CCTV and yesterday’s announcement that they will be deleting over 25,000 gigabytes of our private and personal data is a very welcome one.

“The problem with ANPR is that no grounds for suspicion are necessary for unwelcome checks to be carried out on your movements. Checks which are being undertaken on the whim of individual police officers.

“The fact that senior offices at Police Scotland had an inkling that they were up to no good is no defence for this kind of behaviour. The public will lose trust in our public agencies if they are not properly held to account for their actions.”

He added: “The case for proper oversight and training of data controllers in Scotland is now more pressing than ever.

“We should be asking the Scottish government to set up an Independent digital watchdog for Scotland in order to prevent these kinds of murky attacks on our privacy.”

A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “ANPR cameras are used to help detect, deter and disrupt criminality and Police Scotland have confirmed that steps have already been taken to begin removing data related to the cameras which is no longer required.

“Police Scotland and the Scottish government are clear that ANPR in Scotland must be used in compliance with the Data Protection Act 1998, Human Rights Act 1998, Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995 and the Regulation of Investigatory Powers (Scotland) Act 2000.”