Hundreds of police officers have been sacked or forced to resign after breaching data protection laws over the last five years.
Breaches have ranged from providing incorrect information to members of the public to performing database checks on former lovers according to information released after a Freedom of Information (FOI) request.
Javed Khan, chief executive of Victim Support, said:
“It is very worrying to think that the personal data of victims of crime – who are often extremely vulnerable – might be being accessed and used inappropriately by people in a position of trust.”
Whilst the cases of police “leaking” information about cases on social media are problematic, more worrying is the large number of police officers, including at least 34 inspectors or chief inspectors, that used police databases for finding personal information on individuals for their own use – whether to locate an ex-wife or to run a background check on a potential love interest.
The official police databases are continually being expanded to include more and more personal information on innocent people as well as criminals, and the use of this technology for personal reasons is a major breach of trust from the police, an organisation that relies heavily on the trust of the public.
Information on these breaches comes the same day as the news that Northern Ireland’s Department of Justice has been fined £185,000 for auctioning off a filing cabinet in 2012 that contained personal information about victims of a terrorist attack.