Cambridgeshire Police made a video of Strawberry Fair 2009 that appears to include CCTV footage: who was responsible for sending it to the media?

The request was refused by Cambridgeshire Constabulary.

Dear Cambridgeshire Constabulary,

The Cambridgeshire Constabulary have created a film about Strawberry Fair, Midsummer Common, Cambridge, 2009. This film was shown to a committee at Cambridge City Council on 1st March 2010. It appears to contain CCTV footage whereby members of the public can be identified, even though they appear to be behaving lawfully and there appears no reason to identify them. It also includes footage of a woman clearly asking not to be filmed. The film can now be viewed freely on the internet. Who, at the Cambridgeshire Constabulary was responsible for releasing this film to the Cambridge News?

Yours faithfully,
Paul Humber

Cambridgeshire Constabulary

Dear Paul

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST REFERENCE NO: 0187/10

We acknowledge receipt of your Freedom of Information (FOI) request which
was received by Cambridgeshire Constabulary on 15/04/10.

Your request will now be considered in accordance with the Freedom of
Information Act 2000. You will receive a response within the statutory
timescale of twenty working days as defined by the Act. In some
circumstances, we may be unable to achieve this deadline. If this is the
case, you will be informed and given a revised time-scale at the earliest
opportunity.

If we require any further clarification regarding this request, you will
be notified.

We would advise you that the nature of certain requests may involve
payment of a fee. If this is the case, you will be notified.

Should you have any further enquiries concerning this matter, please
telephone on 0345 456 456 4 asking for the Information Access Office or
email [Cambridgeshire Constabulary request email]

Regards

Donna Anderson
Information Access Office
Cambridgeshire Constabulary

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Cambridgeshire Constabulary

1 Attachment

Dear Dr Humber

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST REFERENCE NO: 0187/2010

In reply to your request for information under the Freedom of Information
Act 2000, dated 15th April 2010 and received in Cambridgeshire as follows:

Cambridgeshire Constabulary have created a film about Strawberry Fair,
Midsummer Common, Cambridge, 2009. This film was shown to a committee at
Cambridge City Council on 1st March 2010.
It appears to contain CCTV footage whereby members of the public can be
identified, even though they appear to be behaving lawfully and there
appears no reason to identify them. It also includes
footage of a woman clearly asking not to be filmed. The film can now be
viewed freely on the internet.

Who, at the Cambridgeshire Constabulary was responsible for releasing this
film to the Cambridge News?

Section 14(1) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 does not oblige a
public authority to comply with a request for information if that request
is vexatious.

Under this section of the Act, there is no public interest test and no
requirement to provide any information or to confirm or deny that the
information is held. It is designed to protect forces from requestors who
seek to abuse their rights under the Act but it is important to note that
it is the request which is made vexatious and not the requestor.

In accordance with the Act, this letter represents a Refusal Notice for
this particular request.

If you are unhappy with this response, please see the attachment below,
which sets out your rights to appeal.

(See attached file: Complaint Rights new.nov - 09.pdf)

Should you have any further enquiries concerning this matter, please
contact the Information Access Office via email, or on telephone number
0345 456 456 4 extension 8164.

David

David Price
Information Access Office
Cambridgeshire Constabulary

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Richard Taylor left an annotation ()

I cannot see why this request has been considered vexatious.

Perhaps it might be worth asking for an internal review and saying you would be satisfied with the role/rank of the officer responsible (if it was an individual) or details of any committee which made the decision.

I think there is a public interest in knowing if it was released by a senior officer following deliberations or if it was perhaps released without due consideration by a junior officer, perhaps at the licensing committee.

Winston Smith left an annotation ()

Richard, I think that S14 is quite clear on this and a Public Authority will only make a request vexatious rarely and with good reason. If an appeal is submitted, that could also be deemed vexatious in itself, so it is difficult to overturn. A better strategy here would have been to submit these requests as one, not in rapid succession which can be interpreted as harrassing. The latest one also seems to lack purpose - if it is such a big issue, why did the newspaper not name the officer or department who released it to them?

Paul Humber left an annotation ()

Thank you for your helpful and interesting annotations.
I am impressed at your 'play a straight bat' attitudes. I am new to thinking about this FoI mechanism but it strikes me there are a myriad reasons for not releasing info. To paraphrase:
'This Information may be released later so we won't release it now.'(the speed check request on this website) 'This information would take too long to gather'(the bike lane request) 'We would find it difficult to unpick this information from the current data'(the cost of the Strawberry Fair video)'we don't like your attitude' (the who released the film to the media request) 'we don't know the full information YET' (the cost of barristers request).
No doubt there are many more grounds they can use for NOT releasing info and this predicates against a normal person with no legal training, but many thanks and compliments for creating this site so that we can all see for ourselves how it works, and so that we can have a go, at least. On the upside, the Chief Constable took the trouble to write a lengthy and detailed letter to me about Strawberry Fair; credit where it is due.
Many thanks again.
Paul H

Paul Waller left an annotation ()

I suggest you question records that the Cambridgeshire Constabulary should properly create for auditing purposes as a responsible "Data controller" should a "date subject" make enquiries of them.

Paul Waller left an annotation ()

Just watched the video in question - 6 minutes in out of 11 min 36 sec - I get the answer to the most obvious question "how could this be filmed with so little consternation of the subjects?". The subject objected to her friend being videoed in a distressed state and threatened to call on the police - clearly in the expectation that they would protect and serve her rights.
However the intrusive behaviour - the cause of this citizens concern are shown to be police personel - dressed to deserve, not revealing identity or purpose.

The next time you see such behaviour use the simple challenge in a good natured way " are you police?" and take a reference snap with the mobile phone.

Karen Dawns left an annotation ()

Actually the constabulary has released all speed surveys as they stated they would - look under the road safety section of their website.