Sussex and Surrey Police forces reprimanded for recording calls

The ICO said the recorded data included “highly sensitive information” relating to suspected crimes

Two police forces have been reprimanded for recording more than 200,000 phone calls without people's knowledge.

The reprimand was issued to Sussex Police and Surrey Police following the roll-out of an app in 2016 that captured personal data, the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) said.

It included "highly sensitive information" relating to suspected crimes, the watchdog said.

Both forces said the breach was "regrettable".

The ICO said it became aware in 2020 that staff members across both police forces had access to the app, which recorded all incoming and outgoing phone calls.

The app was downloaded by 1,015 staff members and more than 200,000 recordings of phone conversations, likely with victims, witnesses and perpetrators of suspected crimes, were automatically saved, the ICO said.

"We can only estimate the huge amount of personal data collected during these conversations, including highly sensitive information relating to suspected crimes," ICO deputy commissioner for regulatory supervision Stephen Bonner said.

"People have the right to expect that when they speak to a police officer, the information they disclose is handled responsibly."

'Lack of governance'

The app was originally intended to be used as recording software by a small number of hostage negotiators to support kidnap and crisis negotiations.

But the ICO said Surrey Police and Sussex Police chose to make it available for all staff to download.

"There was no means at that time of restricting use of the app and, unintentionally, it was enabled for all staff to download without appropriate guidance in place," the forces said in a joint statement.

The forces said they took immediate action when the error was identified in March 2020, including removing access to the app, securing evidence and self-referring the breach to the Investigatory Powers Commissioner's Office (IPCO) and the ICO.

The Crown Prosecution Service was also made aware.

Temporary assistant chief constable Fiona Macpherson said the breach "exposed a lack of governance around use of this digital application, and this is regrettable".

The app has now been withdrawn from use and the recordings, other than those considered to be evidential material, have been destroyed.

Instead of issuing a £1m fine to both Sussex Police and Surrey Police, they have each received a formal reprimand by the ICO.

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