By Tony Winterburn • Published: 16 Jan 2021 • 6:55
Police in UK 'Accidentally' Erase 150,000 Criminal Records From Database. image: Pixabay
Police in UK ‘Accidentally’ Erase 150,000 Criminal Records From Database.
The government is said to be assessing the impact of a “technical issue” that led to over 150,000 records being deleted from police databases.
The error* saw data including fingerprint, DNA and arrest histories wiped after being accidentally flagged up for deletion. The Home Office said the lost entries related to people who were arrested and then released without further action. However, Labour said it presented “huge dangers” for public safety.
The data was lost from the Police National Computer – a system that stores and shares criminal records information across the UK. It is used to help police investigations and provides real-time checks on people, vehicles and crimes, as well as whether suspects are wanted for any unsolved offences.
The deletions would appear to impinge on police power to reopen investigations should more evidence come to light in certain cases. Former Cumbria police chief Stuart Hyde said the loss represents a ‘very large proportion’ of the around 650,000 people arrested each year and is a ‘risk to public safety and a risk to the safeguarding of vulnerable people across the country’.
He said: ‘In terms of the risk this creates clearly some of those people may be involved in subsequent offending and could only be identified through either fingerprints and DNA when they were subsequently brought to light. That may be only a few people, a handful, but nonetheless, it still represents a risk. ‘They (police officers) should expect that the providers of the software ensure that there isn’t a system that can automatically wipe what is essentially nearly a quarter of custody delivered DNA and fingerprints in one quick go.’
*A coding error resulted in records that had been flagged for deletion being lost from the database before checks had been carried out to determine whether they could be lawfully held or not.
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