Stop & Search - 365/19

Date Responded 08 May 2019

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:

  1. Does your force ever request or take mobile phones or digital devices from individuals during a stop and search under any police power and does your force ever access mobile phones or digital devices requested or taken from individuals during stop and searches? If yes, please provide:

i. The legal basis under which you are doing this

ii. Copies of any policy or guidance in relation to this practice

iii.         How you access phones taken during stop and searches which are locked with a password

iv.The technical equipment, if any, that your force is using when accessing devices during stop and searches

In Response:

I can confirm that the information you have requested is held in part by Northumbria Police.

I am able to disclose the located information to you as follows.

  1. No,  the device would only be seized when there is a power of arrest and that there is a viable line of investigation to download the device.

i-iv N/A

Disclaimer

Due to the different methods of recording information across 43 forces, a specific response from one constabulary should not be seen as an indication of what information could be supplied (within cost) by another. Systems used for recording these figures are not generic, nor are the procedures used locally in capturing the data. For this reason responses between forces may differ, and should not be used for comparative purposes.

The information we have supplied to you is likely to contain intellectual property rights of Northumbria Police. Your use of the information must be strictly in accordance with the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 (as amended) or such other applicable legislation. In particular, you must not re-use this information for any commercial purpose.

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