Examination of electronic devices

Gwrthodwyd y cais gan Essex Police.

Dear Essex Police,

1. Please provide copies of any forms officers must complete to request the examination of the contents of digital devices e.g. laptops and phones. If no forms are used and details are instead input on a computer, please provide relevant screenshots.

2. Please provide all guidance available to officers to assist them in requesting the examination of the contents of digital devices.

3. Please provide the name of the department responsible for examining the contents of digital devices and state the number of staff it employs (WTE).

4. If your force uses portable devices that allow officers to download the contents of people's digital devices, please state the number of such devices you have.

5. For the year 2019/20, please provide the total number of examinations of digital devices you carried out.

6. For 2019/20, please provide the number of digital devices earmarked for download recorded as lost either before or after examination, if any.

Yours faithfully,

D Moore

Info Rights Freedom Essex, Essex Police

1 Atodiad

Thank you for your enquiry which has been logged under the above
reference. 

 

Please note that Essex Police are actively publishing information within
our publication scheme webpage, information supplied as part of this
request could be used within the scheme.  Please click on the following
link to search details of existing publications
[1]https://www.essex.police.uk/foi-ai/af/ac....

 

Under the Freedom of Information Act we are required to reply within 20
working days.  The Act does not specify a limit to the number of
information requests a public authority may receive or the number of
requests or questions an applicant may submit.  However, there are
exemptions in the Act that can apply and these include where the cost of
complying with the request would extend beyond the reasonable cost limit,
(currently 18 hours or £450), or if the request is otherwise manifestly
unreasonable in its scope or nature. 

 

Requests that ask a great many questions, or a number of detailed requests
submitted at the same time, may make it necessary for Essex Police to
refuse the requests wholly or in part.  The exemption at Section 14 may be
engaged if the burden on the authority is increased through multiple
requests on differing subjects.

 

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has responsibility for
providing oversight and guidance for the legislation and they have
produced advice for applicants on submitting effective requests.  Further
information can be found on the Commissioner’s website at
[2]www.ico.gov.uk, specific information relating to submitting a request
can be found at: 
[3]https://ico.org.uk/for-the-public/offici...

 

While we process your request, please take the time to consider the ICO’s
advice and whether you feel it may be beneficial to amend or refine your
request.  Our team is happy to discuss your request with you and will be
able to provide advice as to what kind of information will be available
from Essex Police.

 

Although every effort will be made to ensure a response is provided within
statutory deadlines, due to current circumstances, delays may be
unavoidable.  We apologise for any inconvenience and will endeavour to
process your request as quickly as is practicable.

 

Please ensure all future enquiries are sent to the
[4][Essex Police request email] mailbox.

 

Kind regards

 

 

FOI Team | Information Management Department | Information Rights Section
| Essex Police

Telephone: 101 | Email: [5][Essex Police request email]

Address: Information Management Department, Information Rights Section,
Essex Police HQ, PO Box 2, Chelmsford CM2 6DA  (for Sat Nav directions,
use CM2 6DN for HQ)

 

Information Management aspires to be: Helpful, Inclusive & Professional

 

Essex Police have developed a publication strategy, our aim is to reduce
the demand within the FOI Department and to provide knowledge to the
public to include previous and combined FOI requests together with
relevant links and information.

 

Please visit this area of our website before submitting FOI requests as
information may already be available.

 

[6]https://www.essex.police.uk/foi-ai/af/ac...

Please note, if you require further information or wish to resubmit a
request please refer to the information found on the Commissioner’s
website regarding submission of effective requests:
[7]https://www.ico.org.uk/for_the_public/of...

 

Your right to complain

 

If you feel your request has not been properly handled, or you are
otherwise dissatisfied with the outcome of your request you have the right
to complain.

 

Complaints should be submitted within 20 working days from the date of
this response and should be addressed to the Senior Information Officer at
the above address or by email to: [8]info.rights.freedom@essex. police.uk

 

We will conduct a review to investigate your complaint and endeavour to
reply within 20 working days.

 

Please explain which aspect of the reply you are not satisfied with, and
if your complaint concerns the decision to apply an exemption it would
assist the review if you would outline why you believe the exemption does
not apply.

 

If you are still dissatisfied following our review, you have the right
under Section 50 of the Act to complain directly to the Information
Commissioner. Before considering your complaint, the Information
Commissioner would normally expect you to have exhausted the complaints
procedures provided by Essex Police.

 

The Information Commissioner can be contacted at: Information
Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9
5AF or via [9]https://ico.org.uk/

 

 

dangos adrannau a ddyfynnir

Dear Info Rights Freedom Essex,

Examination of electronic devices - 14/3/21

Please let me know how my request is progressing. I have no wish to contact the Information Commissioner unnecessarily.

Yours sincerely,

D. Moore

Info Rights Freedom Essex, Essex Police

1 Atodiad

Link: [1]File-List
Link: [2]Edit-Time-Data

Good morning

 

Thank you for your patience in regard to your initial request and we
acknowledge you are awaiting a response.  There are a considerable number
of documents and policies to review, please rest assured that our
attention is focused on your request and we shall shortly be contacting
you with a response.

 

Kind regards

 

 

FOI Team | Information Management Department | Information Rights Section
| Essex Police

Telephone: 101 | Email: [3][Essex Police request email]

Address: Information Management Department, Information Rights Section,
Essex Police HQ, PO Box 2, Chelmsford CM2 6DA  (for Sat Nav directions,
use CM2 6DN for HQ)

 

Information Management aspires to be: Helpful, Inclusive & Professional

 

Essex Police have developed a publication strategy, our aim is to reduce
the demand within the FOI Department and to provide knowledge to the
public to include previous and combined FOI requests together with
relevant links and information.

 

Please visit this area of our website before submitting FOI requests as
information may already be available.

 

[4]https://www.essex.police.uk/foi-ai/af/ac...

Please note, if you require further information or wish to resubmit a
request please refer to the information found on the Commissioner’s
website regarding submission of effective requests:
[5]https://www.ico.org.uk/for_the_public/of...

 

Your right to complain

 

If you feel your request has not been properly handled, or you are
otherwise dissatisfied with the outcome of your request you have the right
to complain.

 

Complaints should be submitted within 20 working days from the date of
this response and should be addressed to the Senior Information Officer at
the above address or by email to: [6]info.rights.freedom@essex. police.uk

 

We will conduct a review to investigate your complaint and endeavour to
reply within 20 working days.

 

Please explain which aspect of the reply you are not satisfied with, and
if your complaint concerns the decision to apply an exemption it would
assist the review if you would outline why you believe the exemption does
not apply.

 

If you are still dissatisfied following our review, you have the right
under Section 50 of the Act to complain directly to the Information
Commissioner. Before considering your complaint, the Information
Commissioner would normally expect you to have exhausted the complaints
procedures provided by Essex Police.

 

The Information Commissioner can be contacted at: Information
Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9
5AF or via [7]https://ico.org.uk/

 

 

 

dangos adrannau a ddyfynnir

Gadawodd J Roberts anodiad ()

You may be interested in this ICO report::

Mobile phone data extraction by police forces in England and Wales
An update on our findings June 2021

https://ico.org.uk/media/about-the-ico/d...

'The significant risks associated with highly intrusive processing of intimate data from mobile phones are now widely accepted. Consequently, police forces should only do this type of processing after considering other, more privacy-friendly, means of achieving the same investigative objective. In data protection legislation, this means that police forces must demonstrate strict necessity (with other associated conditions) for such processing to be lawful. (page 5)

However, a person’s willingness to offer their device for examination is not, in itself, a sufficient lawful basis for processing information from it. (page 9)

Many police forces do not have effective mechanisms in place to adequately manage the significant volumes of data they have, including the legislative requirement to periodically review and delete material. (page 12)

There was a lack of understanding of MPE’s complexities across different forces. We recommend establishing a national standard for training that emphasises the legislative requirements and respects the requirement to minimise privacy intrusion.' (page 13)

MPE = mobile phome extraction

Other ICO reports:

https://ico.org.uk/about-the-ico/what-we...

Gadawodd D. Moore anodiad ()

ICO contacted.

Info Rights Freedom Essex, Essex Police

2 Atodiad

Link: [1]File-List
Link: [2]Edit-Time-Data

Thank you for your enquiry which has been logged under the above
reference.

 

Section 1 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) places two duties
on public authorities.  Unless exemptions apply, the first duty at Section
1(1)(a) is to confirm or deny whether the information specified in a
request is held.  The second duty at Section 1(1)(b) is to disclose
information that has been confirmed as being held.  Where exemptions are
relied upon Section 17 of the FOIA requires that we provide the applicant
with a notice which: a) states that fact b) specifies the exemption(s) in
question and c) states (if that would not otherwise be apparent) why the
exemption applies.

 

In respect of your enquiry:

 

1. Please provide copies of any forms officers must complete to request
the examination of the contents of digital devices e.g. laptops and
phones. If no forms are used and details are instead input on a computer,
please provide relevant screenshots.

 

2. Please provide all guidance available to officers to assist them in
requesting the examination of the contents of digital devices.

 

3. Please provide the name of the department responsible for examining the
contents of digital devices and state the number of staff it employs
(WTE).

 

4. If your force uses portable devices that allow officers to download the
contents of people's digital devices, please state the number of such
devices you have.

 

5. For the year 2019/20, please provide the total number of examinations
of digital devices you carried out.

 

6. For 2019/20, please provide the number of digital devices earmarked for
download recorded as lost either before or after examination, if any.

 

Having completed enquiries within Essex Police in respect of Section
1(1)(a), Essex Police does hold information relating to your request,
however, the obligation of Section 1(1)(b) cannot be met as Essex Police
does not hold all the information requested in a format that allows it to
be retrieved within the time and cost limits of FOI.

 

When responding to a request for information under the terms of the FOIA,
a public authority is not obliged to provide information if the authority
estimates that the cost of the retrieval of the information requested
would be in excess of £450 (equivalent to 18 hours work).  The costs
criteria relates to a request in its entirety, which means that if we
cannot retrieve all of the information requested within the costs limit,
we are not obliged to retrieve any of the information requested.

 

Section 12(1) of the FOIA states that a public authority is not obliged
to:

 

“…comply with a request for information if the authority estimates that
the cost of complying with the request would exceed the appropriate
limit.”

 

The following explanation outlines the difficulty Essex Police has in
answering your request:

 

In relation to Question 5, Essex Police are unable to accurately extract
the level of detail in relation to your request from our current systems. 
Essex Police systems are designed primarily for the management of
individual cases and not primarily for the production of statistical
information for FOI responses.  It is not possible to automatically
calculate the total number of examinations carried out by Officers and
Staff within Essex Police.  This is because the examination of digital
devices is not the responsibility of a single department, some
examinations are carried out by specialist teams, such as the Paedophile
Online Investigation Team (POLIT) which does not keep a centralised record
of the total number of examinations it carries out.  In order to determine
the number, a manual review of all POLIT case files over the time
specified would be required.  In addition, to further complicate matters
the number of examinations performed may not correlate to the number of
devices examined, since a device may be examined more than once.  To
establish if information is held would, therefore, exceed the time and
cost limits under the FOIA and would qualify as the creation of data as
the results cannot be processed by means of purely sorting or filtering
data sources or running a database query tool. There is no requirement
under the act to create data purely to answer FOI requests.

 

Consequently, and to this extent, Essex Police are exempt from the duty to
provide information you have requested under the provisions of Section
12(1) of the FOIA.  Therefore, and in accordance with Section 17(1) of the
FOIA, this communication must act as a refusal notice to provide all of
the information that could be interpreted as being captured by this part
of your request.

 

Section 16(1) of the FOIA provides that a public authority is required to
provide advice and assistance, Essex Police suggests that you refine your
request to omit Question 5.

 

The intention of Section 16 is to provide assistance in resubmitting a
valid request.  Please note that any advice and assistance under Section
16 regarding resubmission of a request does not indicate that resubmission
will provide a full disclosure, each submission will be assessed and if a
disclosure is deemed harmful, then the appropriate exemptions will apply.

 

Thank you for your interest in Essex Police and we are sorry that we have
not been able to provide the information you have requested on this
occasion.  If you do require further information a new request will need
to be submitted and the request will be dealt with accordingly.

 

Kind regards

 

 

FOI Team | Information Management Department | Information Rights Section
| Essex Police

Telephone: 101 | Email: [3][Essex Police request email]

Address: Information Management Department, Information Rights Section,
Essex Police HQ, PO Box 2, Chelmsford CM2 6DA  (for Sat Nav directions,
use CM2 6DN for HQ)

 

Information Management aspires to be: Helpful, Inclusive & Professional

 

Essex Police have developed a publication strategy, our aim is to reduce
the demand within the FOI Department and to provide knowledge to the
public to include previous and combined FOI requests together with
relevant links and information.

 

Please visit this area of our website before submitting FOI requests as
information may already be available.

 

[4]https://www.essex.police.uk/foi-ai/af/ac...

Please note, if you require further information or wish to resubmit a
request please refer to the information found on the Commissioner’s
website regarding submission of effective requests:
[5]https://www.ico.org.uk/for_the_public/of...

 

Your right to complain

 

If you feel your request has not been properly handled, or you are
otherwise dissatisfied with the outcome of your request you have the right
to complain.

 

Complaints should be submitted within 20 working days from the date of
this response and should be addressed to the Senior Information Officer at
the above address or by email to: [6]info.rights.freedom@essex. police.uk

 

We will conduct a review to investigate your complaint and endeavour to
reply within 20 working days.

 

Please explain which aspect of the reply you are not satisfied with, and
if your complaint concerns the decision to apply an exemption it would
assist the review if you would outline why you believe the exemption does
not apply.

 

If you are still dissatisfied following our review, you have the right
under Section 50 of the Act to complain directly to the Information
Commissioner. Before considering your complaint, the Information
Commissioner would normally expect you to have exhausted the complaints
procedures provided by Essex Police.

 

The Information Commissioner can be contacted at: Information
Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9
5AF or via [7]https://ico.org.uk/

 

 

 

From: Info Rights Freedom Essex <[Essex Police request email]>
Sent: 15 March 2021 13:47
To: D. Moore <[FOI #736541 email]>
Subject: FOI 15464 Digital Devices

 

Thank you for your enquiry which has been logged under the above
reference.

Please note that Essex Police are actively publishing information within
our publication scheme webpage, information supplied as part of this
request could be used within the scheme. Please click on the following
link to search details of existing publications
[8]https://www.essex.police.uk/foi-ai/af/ac....

Under the Freedom of Information Act we are required to reply within 20
working days. The Act does not specify a limit to the number of
information requests a public authority may receive or the number of
requests or questions an applicant may submit. However, there are
exemptions in the Act that can apply and these include where the cost of
complying with the request would extend beyond the reasonable cost limit,
(currently 18 hours or £450), or if the request is otherwise manifestly
unreasonable in its scope or nature.

Requests that ask a great many questions, or a number of detailed requests
submitted at the same time, may make it necessary for Essex Police to
refuse the requests wholly or in part. The exemption at Section 14 may be
engaged if the burden on the authority is increased through multiple
requests on differing subjects.

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has responsibility for
providing oversight and guidance for the legislation and they have
produced advice for applicants on submitting effective requests. Further
information can be found on the Commissioner’s website at
[9]www.ico.gov.uk, specific information relating to submitting a request
can be found at:
[10]https://ico.org.uk/for-the-public/offici...

While we process your request, please take the time to consider the ICO’s
advice and whether you feel it may be beneficial to amend or refine your
request. Our team is happy to discuss your request with you and will be
able to provide advice as to what kind of information will be available
from Essex Police.

Although every effort will be made to ensure a response is provided within
statutory deadlines, due to current circumstances, delays may be
unavoidable. We apologise for any inconvenience and will endeavour to
process your request as quickly as is practicable.

Please ensure all future enquiries are sent to the
[11][Essex Police request email] mailbox.

Kind regards

FOI Team | Information Management Department | Information Rights Section
| Essex Police

Telephone: 101 | Email: [12][Essex Police request email]

Address: Information Management Department, Information Rights Section,
Essex Police HQ, PO Box 2, Chelmsford CM2 6DA (for Sat Nav directions, use
CM2 6DN for HQ)

Information Management aspires to be: Helpful, Inclusive & Professional

Essex Police have developed a publication strategy, our aim is to reduce
the demand within the FOI Department and to provide knowledge to the
public to include previous and combined FOI requests together with
relevant links and information.

Please visit this area of our website before submitting FOI requests as
information may already be available.

[13]https://www.essex.police.uk/foi-ai/af/ac...

Please note, if you require further information or wish to resubmit a
request please refer to the information found on the Commissioner’s
website regarding submission of effective requests:
[14]https://www.ico.org.uk/for_the_public/of...

Your right to complain

If you feel your request has not been properly handled, or you are
otherwise dissatisfied with the outcome of your request you have the right
to complain.

Complaints should be submitted within 20 working days from the date of
this response and should be addressed to the Senior Information Officer at
the above address or by email to: [15]info.rights.freedom@essex. police.uk

We will conduct a review to investigate your complaint and endeavour to
reply within 20 working days.

Please explain which aspect of the reply you are not satisfied with, and
if your complaint concerns the decision to apply an exemption it would
assist the review if you would outline why you believe the exemption does
not apply.

If you are still dissatisfied following our review, you have the right
under Section 50 of the Act to complain directly to the Information
Commissioner. Before considering your complaint, the Information
Commissioner would normally expect you to have exhausted the complaints
procedures provided by Essex Police.

The Information Commissioner can be contacted at: Information
Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9
5AF or via [16]https://ico.org.uk/

dangos adrannau a ddyfynnir

Dear Info Rights Freedom Essex,

Examination of electronic devices

Thank you for your detailed response to my information request. I also thank you for your advice and assistance relating to Question 5; however, I am not persuaded that the information relating to it would cost too much to provide. You state that the examination of devices is not the responsibility of a single department. I do not consider this fact to be a barrier; rather it just means that more departments are each required to contribute less effort to provide the information. You further state that '[i]n addition, to further complicate matters the number of examinations performed may not correlate to the number of devices examined'. I don't see how this complicates matters at all. I haven't asked for information relating to the number of devices examined; however, if you think such information would provide useful contextual information provide it if you wish.

Having carefully considered your response I wish to refine my request by removing parts 1 and 2.

3. Please provide the name of the department responsible for examining the contents of digital devices and state the number of staff it employs (WTE).
4. If your force uses portable devices that allow officers to download the contents of people's digital devices, please state the number of such devices you have.
5. For the year 2019/20, please provide the total number of examinations of digital devices you carried out.
6. For 2019/20, please provide the number of digital devices earmarked for download recorded as lost either before or after examination, if any.

Yours sincerely,

D. Moore

Info Rights Freedom Essex, Essex Police

1 Atodiad

Thank you for your enquiry which has been logged under the above
reference. 

 

Please note that Essex Police are actively publishing information within
our publication scheme webpage, information supplied as part of this
request could be used within the scheme.  Please click on the following
link to search details of existing publications
[1]https://www.essex.police.uk/foi-ai/af/ac....

 

Under the Freedom of Information Act we are required to reply within 20
working days.  The Act does not specify a limit to the number of
information requests a public authority may receive or the number of
requests or questions an applicant may submit.  However, there are
exemptions in the Act that can apply and these include where the cost of
complying with the request would extend beyond the reasonable cost limit,
(currently 18 hours or £450), or if the request is otherwise manifestly
unreasonable in its scope or nature. 

 

Requests that ask a great many questions, or a number of detailed requests
submitted at the same time, may make it necessary for Essex Police to
refuse the requests wholly or in part.  The exemption at Section 14 may be
engaged if the burden on the authority is increased through multiple
requests on differing subjects.

 

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has responsibility for
providing oversight and guidance for the legislation and they have
produced advice for applicants on submitting effective requests.  Further
information can be found on the Commissioner’s website at
[2]www.ico.gov.uk, specific information relating to submitting a request
can be found at: 
[3]https://ico.org.uk/for-the-public/offici...

 

While we process your request, please take the time to consider the ICO’s
advice and whether you feel it may be beneficial to amend or refine your
request.  Our team is happy to discuss your request with you and will be
able to provide advice as to what kind of information will be available
from Essex Police.

 

Although every effort will be made to ensure a response is provided within
statutory deadlines, due to current circumstances, delays may be
unavoidable.  We apologise for any inconvenience and will endeavour to
process your request as quickly as is practicable.

 

Please ensure all future enquiries are sent to the
[4][Essex Police request email] mailbox.

 

Kind regards

 

 

FOI Team | Information Management Department | Information Rights Section
| Essex Police

Telephone: 101 | Email: [5][Essex Police request email]

Address: Information Management Department, Information Rights Section,
Essex Police HQ, PO Box 2, Chelmsford CM2 6DA  (for Sat Nav directions,
use CM2 6DN for HQ)

 

Information Management aspires to be: Helpful, Inclusive & Professional

 

Essex Police have developed a publication strategy, our aim is to reduce
the demand within the FOI Department and to provide knowledge to the
public to include previous and combined FOI requests together with
relevant links and information.

 

Please visit this area of our website before submitting FOI requests as
information may already be available.

 

[6]https://www.essex.police.uk/foi-ai/af/ac...

Please note, if you require further information or wish to resubmit a
request please refer to the information found on the Commissioner’s
website regarding submission of effective requests:
[7]https://www.ico.org.uk/for_the_public/of...

 

Your right to complain

 

If you feel your request has not been properly handled, or you are
otherwise dissatisfied with the outcome of your request you have the right
to complain.

 

Complaints should be submitted within 20 working days from the date of
this response and should be addressed to the Senior Information Officer at
the above address or by email to: [8]info.rights.freedom@essex. police.uk

 

We will conduct a review to investigate your complaint and endeavour to
reply within 20 working days.

 

Please explain which aspect of the reply you are not satisfied with, and
if your complaint concerns the decision to apply an exemption it would
assist the review if you would outline why you believe the exemption does
not apply.

 

If you are still dissatisfied following our review, you have the right
under Section 50 of the Act to complain directly to the Information
Commissioner. Before considering your complaint, the Information
Commissioner would normally expect you to have exhausted the complaints
procedures provided by Essex Police.

 

The Information Commissioner can be contacted at: Information
Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9
5AF or via [9]https://ico.org.uk/

 

 

 

dangos adrannau a ddyfynnir

Info Rights Freedom Essex, Essex Police

1 Atodiad

Thank you for your enquiry which has been logged under the above
reference.

 

Section 1 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) places two duties
on public authorities. Unless exemptions apply, the first duty at Section
1(1)(a) is to confirm or deny whether the information specified in a
request is held. The second duty at Section 1(1)(b) is to disclose
information that has been confirmed as being held. Where exemptions are
relied upon Section 17 of FOIA requires that we provide the applicant with
a notice which: a) states that fact b) specifies the exemption(s) in
question and c) states (if that would not otherwise be apparent) why the
exemption applies.

 

In respect of your enquiry, specifically numbered 3 to 6:

 

3. Please provide the name of the department responsible for examining the
contents of digital devices and state the number of staff it employs
(WTE).

 

4. If your force uses portable devices that allow officers to download the
contents of people's digital devices, please state the number of such
devices you have.

 

5. For the year 2019/20, please provide the total number of examinations
of digital devices you carried out.

 

6. For 2019/20, please provide the number of digital devices earmarked for
download recorded as lost either before or after examination, if any.

 

Having completed enquiries within Essex Police in respect of Section
1(1)(a), Essex Police does hold information relating to your request,
however, the obligation of Section 1(1)(b) cannot be met as Essex Police
does not hold all the information requested in a format that allows it to
be retrieved within the time and cost limits of FOI.

 

When responding to a request for information under the terms of the FOIA,
a public authority is not obliged to provide information if the authority
estimates that the cost of the retrieval of the information requested
would be in excess of £450 (equivalent to 18 hours work).  The costs
criteria relates to a request in its entirety, which means that if we
cannot retrieve all of the information requested within the costs limit,
we are not obliged to retrieve any of the information requested.

 

Section 12(1) of the FOIA states that a public authority is not obliged
to:

 

“…comply with a request for information if the authority estimates that
the cost of complying with the request would exceed the appropriate
limit.”

 

The following explanation outlines the difficulty Essex Police has in
answering your request:

 

In relation to both Question 4 and Question 5, Essex Police are unable to
accurately extract the level of detail in relation to your request from
our current systems.  Essex Police systems are designed primarily for the
management of individual cases and not primarily for the production of
statistical information for FOI responses.  It is not possible to
automatically calculate the total number of devices used or examinations
carried out by Officers and Staff within Essex Police.  This is because
the examination of digital devices is not the responsibility of a single
department, some devices and the examinations are carried out by
specialist teams, such as the Paedophile Online Investigation Team (POLIT)
which does not keep a centralised record of the total number of
examinations it carries out.  In order to determine the number of devices
used or examinations carried out, a manual review of all POLIT case files
over the time specified would be required.  In addition, to further
complicate matters the number of examinations performed may not correlate
to the number of devices examined, since a device may be examined more
than once.  To establish if information is held would, therefore, exceed
the time and cost limits under the FOIA and would qualify as the creation
of data as the results cannot be processed by means of purely sorting or
filtering data sources or running a database query tool. There is no
requirement under the act to create data purely to answer FOI requests.

 

Consequently, and to this extent, Essex Police are exempt from the duty to
provide information you have requested under the provisions of Section
12(1) of the FOIA.  Therefore, and in accordance with Section 17(1) of the
FOIA, this communication must act as a refusal notice to provide all of
the information that could be interpreted as being captured by this part
of your request.

 

Having said that and outside of the Act, Essex Police can confirm the
following data:

 

Caveat: The data is correct as at 17/08/2021

 

3. Please provide the name of the department responsible for examining the
contents of digital devices and state the number of staff it employs
(WTE).

 

The Digital Forensic Unit is a collaborative unit operating under both
Kent and Essex Police. Digital Forensic Analysts analyse cases from both
forces. The breakdown of total staff is as follows:

 

Assistant Digital Forensic Analyst 8
Digital Forensic Analyst 24

 

There are three divisional Digital Media Hubs who provide level 1 and
level 2 mobile phone capability. More advanced capabilities / requirements
are referred to our Digital Forensics Unit. The three Essex Digital Media
Hubs have 15 x Full Time Equivalent staff.

 

6. For 2019/20, please provide the number of digital devices earmarked for
download recorded as lost either before or after examination, if any.

 

It is the Information Commissioner (ICO) to whom any errors around data
capture are reportable.

 

Every effort is made to ensure that the data provided by Essex Police is
accurate and complete.  However, Essex Police systems are designed
primarily for the management of individual cases and not for the purposes
of providing data to answer specific FOI enquiries.  Please note although
data can be extracted from a number of sources via database queries, the
results may be subject to inaccuracies.  Care should be taken to
understand our return when considering the interpretation or further use
of the data.

 

In an effort to assist you may find the following link of interest for the
Information Commissioner:

 

[1]Home | ICO

 

The above request will be included within the Essex Police Publication
scheme [2]https://www.essex.police.uk/foi-ai/af/ac...

 

Essex Police trusts that the information provided is of assistance.  Thank
you for your interest in Essex Police.

 

 

 

FOI Team | Information Management Department | Information Rights Section
| Essex Police

Telephone: 101 | Email: [3][Essex Police request email]

Address: Information Management Department, Information Rights Section,
Essex Police HQ, PO Box 2, Chelmsford CM2 6DA  (for Sat Nav directions,
use CM2 6DN for HQ)

 

Information Management aspires to be: Helpful, Inclusive & Professional

 

Essex Police have developed a publication strategy, our aim is to reduce
the demand within the FOI Department and to provide knowledge to the
public to include previous and combined FOI requests together with
relevant links and information.

 

Please visit this area of our website before submitting FOI requests as
information may already be available.

 

[4]https://www.essex.police.uk/foi-ai/af/ac...

Please note, if you require further information or wish to resubmit a
request please refer to the information found on the Commissioner’s
website regarding submission of effective requests:
[5]https://www.ico.org.uk/for_the_public/of...

 

Your right to complain

 

If you feel your request has not been properly handled, or you are
otherwise dissatisfied with the outcome of your request you have the right
to complain.

 

Complaints should be submitted within 20 working days from the date of
this response and should be addressed to the Senior Information Officer at
the above address or by email to: [6]info.rights.freedom@essex. police.uk

 

We will conduct a review to investigate your complaint and endeavour to
reply within 20 working days.

 

Please explain which aspect of the reply you are not satisfied with, and
if your complaint concerns the decision to apply an exemption it would
assist the review if you would outline why you believe the exemption does
not apply.

 

If you are still dissatisfied following our review, you have the right
under Section 50 of the Act to complain directly to the Information
Commissioner. Before considering your complaint, the Information
Commissioner would normally expect you to have exhausted the complaints
procedures provided by Essex Police.

 

The Information Commissioner can be contacted at: Information
Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9
5AF or via [7]https://ico.org.uk/

 

 

 

From: Info Rights Freedom Essex <[Essex Police request email]>
Sent: 09 August 2021 11:07
To: D. Moore <[FOI #736541 email]>
Subject: FOI 16034 Examination of Digital Devices

 

Thank you for your enquiry which has been logged under the above
reference.

Please note that Essex Police are actively publishing information within
our publication scheme webpage, information supplied as part of this
request could be used within the scheme. Please click on the following
link to search details of existing publications
[8]https://www.essex.police.uk/foi-ai/af/ac....

Under the Freedom of Information Act we are required to reply within 20
working days. The Act does not specify a limit to the number of
information requests a public authority may receive or the number of
requests or questions an applicant may submit. However, there are
exemptions in the Act that can apply and these include where the cost of
complying with the request would extend beyond the reasonable cost limit,
(currently 18 hours or £450), or if the request is otherwise manifestly
unreasonable in its scope or nature.

Requests that ask a great many questions, or a number of detailed requests
submitted at the same time, may make it necessary for Essex Police to
refuse the requests wholly or in part. The exemption at Section 14 may be
engaged if the burden on the authority is increased through multiple
requests on differing subjects.

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has responsibility for
providing oversight and guidance for the legislation and they have
produced advice for applicants on submitting effective requests. Further
information can be found on the Commissioner’s website at
[9]www.ico.gov.uk, specific information relating to submitting a request
can be found at:
[10]https://ico.org.uk/for-the-public/offici...

While we process your request, please take the time to consider the ICO’s
advice and whether you feel it may be beneficial to amend or refine your
request. Our team is happy to discuss your request with you and will be
able to provide advice as to what kind of information will be available
from Essex Police.

Although every effort will be made to ensure a response is provided within
statutory deadlines, due to current circumstances, delays may be
unavoidable. We apologise for any inconvenience and will endeavour to
process your request as quickly as is practicable.

Please ensure all future enquiries are sent to the
[11][Essex Police request email] mailbox.

Kind regards

FOI Team | Information Management Department | Information Rights Section
| Essex Police

Telephone: 101 | Email: [12][Essex Police request email]

Address: Information Management Department, Information Rights Section,
Essex Police HQ, PO Box 2, Chelmsford CM2 6DA (for Sat Nav directions, use
CM2 6DN for HQ)

Information Management aspires to be: Helpful, Inclusive & Professional

Essex Police have developed a publication strategy, our aim is to reduce
the demand within the FOI Department and to provide knowledge to the
public to include previous and combined FOI requests together with
relevant links and information.

Please visit this area of our website before submitting FOI requests as
information may already be available.

[13]https://www.essex.police.uk/foi-ai/af/ac...

Please note, if you require further information or wish to resubmit a
request please refer to the information found on the Commissioner’s
website regarding submission of effective requests:
[14]https://www.ico.org.uk/for_the_public/of...

Your right to complain

If you feel your request has not been properly handled, or you are
otherwise dissatisfied with the outcome of your request you have the right
to complain.

Complaints should be submitted within 20 working days from the date of
this response and should be addressed to the Senior Information Officer at
the above address or by email to: [15]info.rights.freedom@essex. police.uk

We will conduct a review to investigate your complaint and endeavour to
reply within 20 working days.

Please explain which aspect of the reply you are not satisfied with, and
if your complaint concerns the decision to apply an exemption it would
assist the review if you would outline why you believe the exemption does
not apply.

If you are still dissatisfied following our review, you have the right
under Section 50 of the Act to complain directly to the Information
Commissioner. Before considering your complaint, the Information
Commissioner would normally expect you to have exhausted the complaints
procedures provided by Essex Police.

The Information Commissioner can be contacted at: Information
Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9
5AF or via [16]https://ico.org.uk/

dangos adrannau a ddyfynnir

Dear Info Rights Freedom Essex,

Thank you for the valuable information you provided. I wish to modify Request 5:

'5. For the year 2019/20, please provide the total number of examinations of digital devices you carried out.'

You wrote:

'In order to determine the number of devices used or examinations carried out, a manual review of all POLIT case files over the time specified would be required.  In addition, to further complicate matters the number of examinations performed may not correlate to the number of devices examined, since a device may be examined more than once.  To establish if information is held would, therefore, exceed the time and cost limits under the FOIA and would qualify as the creation of data as the results cannot be processed by means of purely sorting or filtering data sources or running a database query tool. There is no requirement under the act to create data purely to answer FOI requests.'

Your response suggests that the figure for devices examined may be obtained with less effort.

Modified request:

For the year 2019/20, please provide the total number of digital devices you examined.

Yours sincerely,

D. Moore

Info Rights Freedom Essex, Essex Police

1 Atodiad

Link: [1]File-List
Link: [2]Edit-Time-Data

Thank you for your enquiry which has been logged under the above
reference. 

 

Please note that Essex Police are actively publishing information within
our publication scheme webpage, information supplied as part of this
request could be used within the scheme.  Please click on the following
link to search details of existing publications
[3]https://www.essex.police.uk/foi-ai/af/ac....

 

Under the Freedom of Information Act we are required to reply within 20
working days.  The Act does not specify a limit to the number of
information requests a public authority may receive or the number of
requests or questions an applicant may submit.  However, there are
exemptions in the Act that can apply and these include where the cost of
complying with the request would extend beyond the reasonable cost limit,
(currently 18 hours or £450), or if the request is otherwise manifestly
unreasonable in its scope or nature. 

 

Requests that ask a great many questions, or a number of detailed requests
submitted at the same time, may make it necessary for Essex Police to
refuse the requests wholly or in part.  The exemption at Section 14 may be
engaged if the burden on the authority is increased through multiple
requests on differing subjects.

 

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has responsibility for
providing oversight and guidance for the legislation and they have
produced advice for applicants on submitting effective requests.  Further
information can be found on the Commissioner’s website at
[4]www.ico.gov.uk, specific information relating to submitting a request
can be found at: 
[5]https://ico.org.uk/for-the-public/offici...

 

While we process your request, please take the time to consider the ICO’s
advice and whether you feel it may be beneficial to amend or refine your
request.  Our team is happy to discuss your request with you and will be
able to provide advice as to what kind of information will be available
from Essex Police.

 

Although every effort will be made to ensure a response is provided within
statutory deadlines, due to current circumstances, delays may be
unavoidable.  We apologise for any inconvenience and will endeavour to
process your request as quickly as is practicable.

 

Please ensure all future enquiries are sent to the
[6][Essex Police request email] mailbox.

 

Kind regards

 

 

FOI Team | Information Management Department | Information Rights Section
| Essex Police

Telephone: 101 | Email: [7][Essex Police request email]

Address: Information Management Department, Information Rights Section,
Essex Police HQ, PO Box 2, Chelmsford CM2 6DA  (for Sat Nav directions,
use CM2 6DN for HQ)

 

Information Management aspires to be: Helpful, Inclusive & Professional

 

Essex Police have developed a publication strategy, our aim is to reduce
the demand within the FOI Department and to provide knowledge to the
public to include previous and combined FOI requests together with
relevant links and information.

 

Please visit this area of our website before submitting FOI requests as
information may already be available.

 

[8]https://www.essex.police.uk/foi-ai/af/ac...

Please note, if you require further information or wish to resubmit a
request please refer to the information found on the Commissioner’s
website regarding submission of effective requests:
[9]https://www.ico.org.uk/for_the_public/of...

 

Your right to complain

 

If you feel your request has not been properly handled, or you are
otherwise dissatisfied with the outcome of your request you have the right
to complain.

 

Complaints should be submitted within 20 working days from the date of
this response and should be addressed to the Senior Information Officer at
the above address or by email to: [10]info.rights.freedom@essex. police.uk

 

We will conduct a review to investigate your complaint and endeavour to
reply within 20 working days.

 

Please explain which aspect of the reply you are not satisfied with, and
if your complaint concerns the decision to apply an exemption it would
assist the review if you would outline why you believe the exemption does
not apply.

 

If you are still dissatisfied following our review, you have the right
under Section 50 of the Act to complain directly to the Information
Commissioner. Before considering your complaint, the Information
Commissioner would normally expect you to have exhausted the complaints
procedures provided by Essex Police.

 

The Information Commissioner can be contacted at: Information
Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9
5AF or via [11]https://ico.org.uk/

 

 

 

dangos adrannau a ddyfynnir

Info Rights Freedom Essex, Essex Police

1 Atodiad

Thank you for your enquiry which has been logged under the above
reference.

 

Section 1 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) places two duties
on public authorities.  Unless exemptions apply, the first duty at Section
1(1)(a) is to confirm or deny whether the information specified in a
request is held.  The second duty at Section 1(1)(b) is to disclose
information that has been confirmed as being held.  Where exemptions are
relied upon Section 17 of the FOIA requires that we provide the applicant
with a notice which: a) states that fact b) specifies the exemption(s) in
question and c) states (if that would not otherwise be apparent) why the
exemption applies.

 

In respect of your enquiry:

 

Thank you for the valuable information you provided.  I wish to modify
Request 5:

 

'5. For the year 2019/20, please provide the total number of examinations
of digital devices you carried out.'

 

You wrote:

 

'In order to determine the number of devices used or examinations carried
out, a manual review of all POLIT case files over the time specified would
be required.  In addition, to further complicate matters the number of
examinations performed may not correlate to the number of devices
examined, since a device may be examined more than once.  To establish if
information is held would, therefore, exceed the time and cost limits
under the FOIA and would qualify as the creation of data as the results
cannot be processed by means of purely sorting or filtering data sources
or running a database query tool. There is no requirement under the act to
create data purely to answer FOI requests.'

 

Your response suggests that the figure for devices examined may be
obtained with less effort.

 

Modified request:

 

For the year 2019/20, please provide the total number of digital devices
you examined.

 

Having completed enquiries within Essex Police in respect of Section
1(1)(a), Essex Police does hold information relating to your request,
however, the obligation of Section 1(1)(b) cannot be met as Essex Police
does not hold all the information requested in a format that allows it to
be retrieved within the time and cost limits of FOI.

 

When responding to a request for information under the terms of the FOIA,
a public authority is not obliged to provide information if the authority
estimates that the cost of the retrieval of the information requested
would be in excess of £450 (equivalent to 18 hours work).  The costs
criteria relates to a request in its entirety, which means that if we
cannot retrieve all of the information requested within the costs limit,
we are not obliged to retrieve any of the information requested.

 

Section 12(1) of the FOIA states that a public authority is not obliged
to:

 

“…comply with a request for information if the authority estimates that
the cost of complying with the request would exceed the appropriate
limit.”

 

The following explanation outlines the difficulty Essex Police has in
answering your request:

 

Essex Police are unable to accurately extract the level of detail in
relation to your request from our current systems. Essex Police systems
are designed primarily for the management of individual cases and not
primarily for the production of statistical information for FOI responses.

 

It is not possible to automatically calculate the total number of
examinations carried out across the Force by many and varied Officers and
Staff within Essex Police Teams.

 

This is because the examination of digital devices is not the
responsibility of one single department, but many departments with
multiple teams, the examinations are carried out by a variety of different
specialist teams, working in many different fields.

 

One example of a specialist team is the Paedophile Online Investigation
Team (POLIT) which does not keep a centralised record of the total number
of examinations it carries out. An example of the difficulty is presented
when we consider how in respect of that team alone, in order to determine
the number of examinations carried out, a manual review of all POLIT case
files over the time specified would be required.

 

This difficulty is intensified when we consider the number and variety of
specialist teams across the Force, each carrying out examinations as part
of their investigations.

 

In addition, to further complicate matters the number of examinations
performed does not necessarily correlate to the number of devices
examined, since one device may be examined more than once.

 

To establish if information is held would, therefore, exceed the time and
cost limits under the FOIA and would qualify as the creation of data as
the results cannot be processed by means of purely sorting or filtering
data sources or running a database query tool. There is no requirement
under the act to create data purely to answer FOI requests.

 

Consequently and to this extent, Essex Police are exempt from the duty to
provide information you have requested under the provisions of Section
12(1) of the FOIA.  Therefore, and in accordance with Section 17(1) of the
FOIA, this communication must act as a refusal notice to provide all of
the information that could be interpreted as being captured by this part
of your request.

 

Please note the above request will be included within our [1]Publication
Scheme.

 

In an effort to assist under Section 16 of the FOIA, you may find the
following link to related requests of interest under Digital Forensics:

[2]Published items | Essex Police

 

Thank you for your interest in Essex Police and we are sorry that we have
not been able to provide the information you have requested on this
occasion.  If you do require further information a new request will need
to be submitted and the request will be dealt with accordingly.

 

 

FOI Team | Information Management Department | Information Rights Section
| Essex Police

Telephone: 101 | Email: [3][Essex Police request email]

Address: Information Management Department, Information Rights Section,
Essex Police HQ, PO Box 2, Chelmsford CM2 6DA  (for Sat Nav directions,
use CM2 6DN for HQ)

 

Information Management aspires to be: Helpful, Inclusive & Professional

 

Essex Police have developed a publication strategy, our aim is to reduce
the demand within the FOI Department and to provide knowledge to the
public to include previous and combined FOI requests together with
relevant links and information.

 

Please visit this area of our website before submitting FOI requests as
information may already be available.

 

[4]https://www.essex.police.uk/foi-ai/af/ac...

Please note, if you require further information or wish to resubmit a
request please refer to the information found on the Commissioner’s
website regarding submission of effective requests:
[5]https://www.ico.org.uk/for_the_public/of...

 

Your right to complain

 

If you feel your request has not been properly handled, or you are
otherwise dissatisfied with the outcome of your request you have the right
to complain.

 

Complaints should be submitted within 20 working days from the date of
this response and should be addressed to the Senior Information Officer at
the above address or by email to: [6]info.rights.freedom@essex. police.uk

 

We will conduct a review to investigate your complaint and endeavour to
reply within 20 working days.

 

Please explain which aspect of the reply you are not satisfied with, and
if your complaint concerns the decision to apply an exemption it would
assist the review if you would outline why you believe the exemption does
not apply.

 

If you are still dissatisfied following our review, you have the right
under Section 50 of the Act to complain directly to the Information
Commissioner. Before considering your complaint, the Information
Commissioner would normally expect you to have exhausted the complaints
procedures provided by Essex Police.

 

The Information Commissioner can be contacted at: Information
Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9
5AF or via [7]https://ico.org.uk/

 

 

 

From: Info Rights Freedom Essex
Sent: 01 September 2021 14:09
To: D. Moore <[FOI #736541 email]>
Subject: RE: FOI 16090 Examination of Digital Devices

 

Thank you for your enquiry which has been logged under the above
reference. 

 

Please note that Essex Police are actively publishing information within
our publication scheme webpage, information supplied as part of this
request could be used within the scheme.  Please click on the following
link to search details of existing publications
[8]https://www.essex.police.uk/foi-ai/af/ac....

 

Under the Freedom of Information Act we are required to reply within 20
working days.  The Act does not specify a limit to the number of
information requests a public authority may receive or the number of
requests or questions an applicant may submit.  However, there are
exemptions in the Act that can apply and these include where the cost of
complying with the request would extend beyond the reasonable cost limit,
(currently 18 hours or £450), or if the request is otherwise manifestly
unreasonable in its scope or nature. 

 

Requests that ask a great many questions, or a number of detailed requests
submitted at the same time, may make it necessary for Essex Police to
refuse the requests wholly or in part.  The exemption at Section 14 may be
engaged if the burden on the authority is increased through multiple
requests on differing subjects.

 

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has responsibility for
providing oversight and guidance for the legislation and they have
produced advice for applicants on submitting effective requests.  Further
information can be found on the Commissioner’s website at
[9]www.ico.gov.uk, specific information relating to submitting a request
can be found at: 
[10]https://ico.org.uk/for-the-public/offici...

 

While we process your request, please take the time to consider the ICO’s
advice and whether you feel it may be beneficial to amend or refine your
request.  Our team is happy to discuss your request with you and will be
able to provide advice as to what kind of information will be available
from Essex Police.

 

Although every effort will be made to ensure a response is provided within
statutory deadlines, due to current circumstances, delays may be
unavoidable.  We apologise for any inconvenience and will endeavour to
process your request as quickly as is practicable.

 

Please ensure all future enquiries are sent to the
[11][Essex Police request email] mailbox.

 

Kind regards

 

 

FOI Team | Information Management Department | Information Rights Section
| Essex Police

Telephone: 101 | Email: [12][Essex Police request email]

Address: Information Management Department, Information Rights Section,
Essex Police HQ, PO Box 2, Chelmsford CM2 6DA  (for Sat Nav directions,
use CM2 6DN for HQ)

 

Information Management aspires to be: Helpful, Inclusive & Professional

 

Essex Police have developed a publication strategy, our aim is to reduce
the demand within the FOI Department and to provide knowledge to the
public to include previous and combined FOI requests together with
relevant links and information.

 

Please visit this area of our website before submitting FOI requests as
information may already be available.

 

[13]https://www.essex.police.uk/foi-ai/af/ac...

Please note, if you require further information or wish to resubmit a
request please refer to the information found on the Commissioner’s
website regarding submission of effective requests:
[14]https://www.ico.org.uk/for_the_public/of...

 

Your right to complain

 

If you feel your request has not been properly handled, or you are
otherwise dissatisfied with the outcome of your request you have the right
to complain.

 

Complaints should be submitted within 20 working days from the date of
this response and should be addressed to the Senior Information Officer at
the above address or by email to: [15]info.rights.freedom@essex. police.uk

 

We will conduct a review to investigate your complaint and endeavour to
reply within 20 working days.

 

Please explain which aspect of the reply you are not satisfied with, and
if your complaint concerns the decision to apply an exemption it would
assist the review if you would outline why you believe the exemption does
not apply.

 

If you are still dissatisfied following our review, you have the right
under Section 50 of the Act to complain directly to the Information
Commissioner. Before considering your complaint, the Information
Commissioner would normally expect you to have exhausted the complaints
procedures provided by Essex Police.

 

The Information Commissioner can be contacted at: Information
Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9
5AF or via [16]https://ico.org.uk/

 

 

 

dangos adrannau a ddyfynnir