The original enquiry was about a very serious offence, not
something trivial like parking fines! In a case like this I
would have thought that what is important is what is
MORALLY right. If librarians have information
relevant to cases of rape, grievous bodily harm or
muder, then quibbles about the law on data protection will
help the culprits to escape and will, quite justifiably,
bring both librarians and the law into disrepute.
Roy Davies
University of Exeter
On Fri, 28 Jan 2000 17:08:42 GMT Infologistix
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Dear Hanah and Lis-Link,
>
> As a non-lawyer, but someone who has to comply with the Data
> Protection Act, I would have thought you would be on very thin ice.
>
> Unless all your tenants are serial rapists or suspects you would be
> handing over personal data on the off-chance that it might be useful, with
> very little control of what it would then be used for.
>
> I thought this was just what the the DPA was supposed to prevent.
>
> I would not feel happy handing over such data unless someone had
> sifted it or qualified it by some measure of reasonable suspicion.
>
> John Ross
>
>
>
>
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> At 13:39 28/01/00 -0000, you wrote:
> >Dear All,
> >
> >Here's a puzzler for a Friday afternoon:
> >
> >I work for a social landlord in Bath looking after (among other things) a
> >database of our 10,000 properties in the city of Bath and surrounding area.
> >On Tuesday's Crimewatch there was an appeal about a serial rapist in Bath
> >and my immediate thought was that maybe the records I look after would be
> >useful - they detail who lived where and when back to at least the early
> >nineties.
> >
> >Just to be on the safe side I okayed it with my boss. 'Fine,' she said, 'but
> >check the data protection issues.' I had a look on the website (
> >http://www.dataprotection.gov.uk/ <http://www.dataprotection.gov.uk/> ) and
> >couldn't find the answer so I phoned the information line. The limited
> >information I received was that if the police ask us for information and we
> >believe that we would be hindering their investigations by not supplying it
> >then we can share what we know, but we can't approach them and offer our
> >assistance.
> >
> >My question really is how accurate is this? Are there any exceptions when
> >the act is applied to the police?
> >
> >Any help would be gratefully received.
> >
> >Many thanks
> >Hannah
> >
> >
> >
> >Hannah Cooke BA (Hons)
> >Management Information Officer
> >Somer Community Housing Trust
> >Westmoreland House
> >Westmoreland Street
> >Lower Bristol Road
> >Bath BA2 3HE
> >
> >
> >
> >01225 326057
> >int 6057
> >
> >
> > <mailto:[log in to unmask]> [log in to unmask]
> >
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