Provision of information held by Northumbria Police made under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (the 'Act')
As you may be aware the purpose of the Act is to allow a general right of access to information held at the time of a request, by a Public Authority (including the Police), subject to certain limitations and exemptions.
You asked:
- Please provide a brief summary of all commercial agreements concluded between your force and Ring Inc, the home security and smart home company owned by Amazon, in the last two years, including the value of the contract, date entered into and basic terms thereof.
- Please confirm whether your police force has agreed to promote the Ring camera on social media or through press statements as part of any such partnership agreement.
- Please disclose how many Ring cameras have been provided to your force by Ring Inc, either freely or at a discounted price in the last two years.
- Please disclose if your force receives / has received any benefit from Ring Inc (e.g. credits towards buying cameras at discounted rates) and whether any such benefits are linked to any targets (e.g. if a certain number of residents within your force's jurisdiction download the Ring app or buy a Ring camera).
- Please outline any other services offered by Ring Inc to your force. For instance, has Ring offered your force access to Ring's "law enforcement neighbourhood portal"?
- Please provide me with a list of all meetings undertaken between representatives of your force and representatives of Ring Inc over the last two years, including dates and locations where available.
- Please disclose any emails sent between representatives of your force and Ring Inc, in the last two years. Feel free to redact names where appropriate.
In Response:
We have now had the opportunity to fully consider your request and I provide a response for your attention.
Northumbria Police will neither confirm nor deny any information is held regarding your request and by doing so will rely on the following exemptions.
Section 24 National Security
Section 31 Law Enforcement
Any disclosure under FOI is a release to the public at large. Whilst not questioning the motives of the applicant, confirming or denying that any other information relating to the covert practise of this surveillance technique would show criminals what the capacity, tactical abilities and capabilities of the force are, allowing them to target specific areas of the UK to conduct their criminal/terrorist activities. Confirming or denying the specific circumstances in which the Police Service may or may not deploy the use of this surveillance technique would lead to an increase of harm to covert investigations and compromise law enforcement. This would be to the detriment of providing an efficient policing service and a failure in providing a duty of care to all members of the public.
The threat from terrorism cannot be ignored. It is generally recognised that the international security landscape is increasingly complex and unpredictable. Since 2006, the UK Government has published the threat level, based upon current intelligence and that threat has remained at the second highest level - severe, except for two short periods during August 2006, June and July 2007, and more recently in May and June this year following the Manchester and London terrorist attacks, when it was raised to the highest threat, critical. The UK continues to face a sustained threat from violent extremists and terrorists and the current threat level is set at severe.
It is well established that police forces use covert tactics and surveillance to gain intelligence in order to counteract criminal behaviour. It has been previously documented in the media that many terrorist incidents have been thwarted due to intelligence gained by these means.
Confirming or denying whether any information is or isn’t held relating to the covert use of this surveillance technique technology would limit operational capabilities as criminals/terrorist would gain a greater understanding of the police’s methods and techniques, enabling offenders to take steps to counter them. It may also suggest the limitations of police capabilities in this area, which may further encourage criminal/terrorist activity by exposing potential vulnerabilities. This detrimental effect is increased if the request is made to several different law enforcement bodies. In addition to the local criminal fraternity now being better informed, those intent on organised crime throughout the UK will be able to map where the use of certain tactics are or are not deployed. This can be use information to those committing crimes. It would have the likelihood of identifying location-specific operations which would ultimately compromise police tactics, operations and future prosecutions as criminals could counteract the measures used against them.
Any information identifying the focus of policing activity could be used to the advantage of terrorists or criminal organisations. Information that undermines the operational integrity of these activities will adversely affect public safety and have a negative impact on both National Security and Law Enforcement.
