Examination of electronic devices

The request was partially successful.

Dear Hertfordshire Constabulary,

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

FOI Team,

1 Attachment

Dear D Moore,

I am writing in response to your request for information, received 14th
March.

Yours sincerely,
Jo Atkins

D. Moore left an annotation ()

It appears that Bedfordshire Police has responded to this request on behalf of Hertfordshire Constabulary.

'From Jan 2019 to Dec 2020 – 1905 phones and computers completed'

No forms have been provided, but you can view them here:

https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/e...

I consider the response inadequate, but I'll not pursue the matter given that another force has provided the relevant forms.

J Roberts left an annotation ()

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...

J Roberts left an annotation ()

Daily Telegraph - 15/1/23

Police could be banned from making intrusive searches of rape victims’ phones

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/01...

HMICFRS - 1/12/22

Police forces overwhelmed and ineffective when it comes to digital forensics, new report finds

'During this inspection we found that, nationally, there were over 25,000 devices waiting for a digital forensic examination. In 2013, a smartphone stored on average 16GB of data, equivalent to about 15 books. Today’s smartphones can retain 128GB of data, equivalent to the books on about 90 metres of bookshelves. The sheer scale of the information held on mobile devices today presents one of the greatest challenges to law enforcement’s ability to secure and preserve evidence.'

https://www.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/...

Circular 007/2022: Extraction of information from electronic devices

https://www.gov.uk/government/publicatio...

'In the End-to-End Rape Review 2021, the government committed to ensuring that any digital information requested from victims would be strictly limited to what is necessary and proportionate, to allow reasonable lines of inquiry into alleged offence.'

Extraction of information from electronic devices – guidance for sanctioning officers

Published on 8 November 2022

https://www.college.police.uk/article/ex...

'Officers at the rank of inspector (known as a sanctioning officer) now need to make the decision about whether to approve an authorised person to extract information from an electronic device.

This can include (but is not limited to):

mobile phones
tablets
laptops

Authorised persons must have a reasonable line of enquiry and a belief that information is held on the device, the extraction of which is strictly necessary to pursue that line of enquiry.  In addition they must inform the device user of all aspects of the process. 

New digital processing notices (DPNs)have also been introduced and released to Home Office forces. These were developed by the National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC) in collaboration with the College and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), with stakeholder consultation. The DPNs should be completed by the authorised person and signed off by a sanctioning officer.'
.....................................

Extraction of information from electronic devices – Sanctioning officer (code of practice)

https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/s...

digital processing notices (DPNs) A,B (information note), C (device seized) and D (also device seized)

https://www.npcc.police.uk/FreedomofInfo...

https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/n...