Surrey and Sussex police spared fines after recording 200,000 phone calls without people’s knowledge | Computer Weekly

▤ Summary

More than 1,015 members of staff downloaded a free app from the Google Play Store, which was used to unlawfully record conversations with victims, witnesses and perpetrators of suspected crimes, the information commissioner found. The practice, which went on for over three years, raised questions about the ability of police officers to identify and disclose recordings that are legally required to be shared with defendants under the Criminal Procedure and Investigations Act 1966 (CPIA). The ICO found that although it had been technically possible for Surrey Police to assign the app to a limited number of specialist officers, it had not chosen to do so, and in practice it was available to staff across the force to download. As soon as the error was reported, we took urgent action to ensure that this did not happen again.” Katie Wheatley, head of the crime fraud and regulatory team at law firm Bindmans, said it was astonishing that Sussex and Surrey police had apparently failed to consider legal requirements to retain and disclose material for criminal investigations. “I still find it astonishing that these recordings were being made for years without any consideration being given by the forces concerned or individual users of the legal requirement for retention and disclosure of material relevant to investigations,” she told Computer Weekly.

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