MP questions police computer policy

An MP has said police forces need to be more consistent in handling requests for removal of records from the Police National Computer (PNC).

Stephen Crabb, Conservative member for Pembrokeshire, said figures provided by the Home Office suggest that not enough cases are being removed from the system, even when the people affected have proved they are innocent of any crime.

In answer to a parliamentary question, he was told by Home Office minister Tom McNulty that since March of last year 80 cases have been removed from the PNC with another 69 in the process of removal. This covers the period since the publication of the Association of Chief Police Officers' Retention Guidelines for Nominal Records on the Police National Computer (pdf).

"I think there should be more," Crabb told GC News. "The purpose of the guidelines was that there should be conformity across the board, but it appears that in different parts of the country, with different chief constables, there are different results.

"Different practices are going on and the Home Office should be pushed on it."

He said his concerns were initially prompted by the case of constituent who had been wrongfully arrested and received an apology from the local chief constable, but whose details have remained on the PNC.

This article was originally published at Kablenet.

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