Police National Database will have audit trail

A code of practice for the forthcoming Police National Database says that an audit trail will be created to tackle abuse.

Chief police officers will be responsible for auditing the activity of their own officers and no user should audit their own activities, says the document, presented to Parliament on 17 March 2010 by the National Policing Improvement Agency (NPIA).

It says that each chief police officer is a data controller and responsible for the personal information held on the system.

Decisions about what information to place on the system, what information to withhold from the system, and what restrictions to apply on access to and use of the information will be taken by chief officers. They will be monitored by HM Inspectors of Constabulary.

To guard against data breaches, the code says that exported information should be anonymised by the removal of information which could be used to identify individuals.

The PND, due to be opened later this year, will for the first time allow forces across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland to share, access and search existing local intelligence and operational information on a national basis.

It aims to deliver the primary recommendation of Sir Michael Bichard's inquiry into the murders of schoolgirls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman in Soham in 2002.

The main aims of the code are to ensure that use of the code complies with data protection and human rights legislation, that data is used effectively and that it is not used to discriminate against any particular social group.

As the PND develops, the code will be updated by the NPIA.

This article was originally published at Kable.

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