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
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