Information regarding restriction of contact by a member of the public

W Hunter made this Freedom of Information request to Northumbria Police This request has been closed to new correspondence. Contact us if you think it should be reopened.

Waiting for an internal review by Northumbria Police of their handling of this request.

Dear Northumbria Police,

Please provide copies of any and all policies or procedures within Northumbria Police which are used to restrict communication by a member of the public with your organisation.

Please detail:-

A. what if any requirements must be met before each of those policies can be implemented

B. what if any information is required to be disclosed to the affected member of the public, i.e. the duration of any such restriction, the reason for the restriction, any right of appeal against the restriction, which member of staff is responsible for initiating the restriction etc.

C. what, if any, disciplinary action options are available if it is found that an employee / officer has instigated any of these restrictions without complying with the requirements of the documentation.

Please also provide a copy of any policy within Northumbria Police which details contact by telephone between members of the public and staff within your organisation.

For clarification I have been told by 101 call handlers that members of the public will not be connected to anyone of Inspector rank or above, although sometimes this is also specified as Sgt rank or above, even if the member of the public has the officers name and shoulder number as this is "policy".

I received a written letter from an Inspector which included instructions to contact him by telephone at "the above" number, the only number shown was 101.

My call to 101 resulted in the call handler refusing to connect me, even though I had the inspectors name and shoulder number, before the handler terminated the call.

The inspector then called me the following day, at a time when I was not available, leaving a message on my answerphone telling me to call him on 101.

No contact was achieved because call handlers act to prevent communication rather than facilitate it and I would like to see any policy which covers this behaviour please.

I have also been told that call handlers refuse to identify where, i.e. the name of the individual, or indeed under which policy their instructions originate when restricting contact so please include any policy or procedure which allows staff to refuse to identify this information as I was under the perhaps mistaken impression that officers / employees of the police were required to provide identify information upon request by a member of the public.

Yours faithfully,

W Hunter

Freedom of Information Mailbox, Northumbria Police

Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA)

Thank you for your email received today in which you make a request for information that Northumbria Police may hold in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act 2000

We are in the process of dealing with your request and a response should be provided to you by 03/09/2019 which is in accordance with the legislation.

Yours sincerely

Information Management Unit

www.northumbria.police.uk
www.northumbria-pcc.gov.uk

'Northumbria Police will be outstanding in the service we provide'

'We will do this through protecting the Vulnerable, delivering quality Investigations and applying Problem solving to everything we do to protect the communities we serve.'

show quoted sections

Freedom of Information Mailbox, Northumbria Police

1 Attachment

Provision of information held by Northumbria Police made under the Freedom
of Information Act 2000 (the 'Act')

 

Thank you for your email dated 2 August 2019 in which you made a request
for access to certain information which may be held by Northumbria Police.

 

As you may be aware the purpose of the Act is to allow a general right of
access to information held at the time of a request, by a Public Authority
(including the Police), subject to certain limitations and exemptions.

 

You asked:

 

Please provide copies of any and all policies or procedures within
Northumbria Police which are used to restrict communication by a member of
the public with your organisation.

 

Please detail:-

 

1.     what if any requirements must be met before each of those policies
can be implemented

 

2.     what if any information is required to be disclosed to the affected
member of the public, i.e. the duration of any such restriction, the
reason for the restriction, any right of appeal against the restriction,
which member of staff is responsible for initiating the restriction etc.

 

3.     what, if any, disciplinary action options are available if it is
found that an employee / officer has instigated any of these restrictions
without complying with the requirements of the documentation.

 

4.     Please also provide a copy of any policy within Northumbria Police
which details contact by telephone between members of the public and staff
within your organisation.

 

We have now had the opportunity to fully consider your request and I
provide a response for your attention.

 

Following receipt of your request, searches were conducted with the
Communications Department of Northumbria Police.  I can confirm that the
information you have requested is not held by Northumbria Police.  There
is no such policy.  Staff may advise malicious or persistent
callers/complainants to direct their concerns via email.  If you have a
complaint regarding your experience of our Communications Department or
any other police staff or officers the correct route to register your
complaint can be found on the link below.

 

[1]https://beta.northumbria.police.uk/conta...

 

 

Due to the different methods of recording information across 43 forces, a
specific response from one constabulary should not be seen as an
indication of what information could be supplied (within cost) by another.
Systems used for recording these figures are not generic, nor are the
procedures used locally in capturing the data. For this reason responses
between forces may differ, and should not be used for comparative
purposes.

 

The information we have supplied to you is likely to contain intellectual
property rights of Northumbria Police. Your use of the information must be
strictly in accordance with the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 (as
amended) or such other applicable legislation. In particular, you must not
re-use this information for any commercial purpose.

 

You may be interested to know that Northumbria Police routinely publish
information via the Disclosure Log. The aim of the Disclosure Log is to
promote openness and transparency by voluntarily placing information into
the public arena.

 

The Disclosure Log contains copies of some of the information that has
been disclosed by Northumbria Police in response to requests made under
the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

 

Whilst it is not possible to publish all responses we will endeavour to
publish those where we feel that the information disclosed is in the wider
public interest.

 

The Disclosure Log will be updated once responses have been sent to the
requester.

 

I have provided the relevant link below.

 

[2]https://beta.northumbria.police.uk/about...

 

How to complain

 

If you are unhappy with our decision or do not consider that we have
handled your request properly and we are unable to resolve this issue
informally, you are entitled to make a formal complaint to us under our
complaints procedure, attached.

 

If you are still unhappy after we have investigated your complaint and
reported to you the outcome, you may complain directly to the Information
Commissioner’s Office and request that they investigate to ascertain
whether we have dealt with your request in accordance with the Act.

 

Yours sincerely

 

 

 

Michael Cleugh

Data Protection and Disclosure Advisor

 

[NOT PROTECTIVELY MARKED]

 

'Northumbria Police will be outstanding in the service we provide'

'We will do this through protecting the Vulnerable, delivering quality
Investigations and applying Problem solving to everything we do to protect
the communities we serve.'

 

NORTHUMBRIA POLICE PRIVACY AND CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE The information
contained in this message and any attachment(s) is confidential and
intended only for the attention of the named organisation or individual to
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References

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1. https://beta.northumbria.police.uk/conta...
2. https://beta.northumbria.police.uk/about...

Dear Northumbria Police,

Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.

I am writing to request an internal review of Northumbria Police's handling of my FOI request 'Information regarding restriction of contact by a member of the public'.

Today at approximately 15 45 I telephoned Northumbria Police via 101 in an attempt to speak to Mr Cleugh.

When I finally managed to speak to a call handler she placed my call on hold whilst she contacted Mr Cleugh only to then inform me that Mr Cleugh had left for the day, this was at 16:01.

She asked if I would like her to send an email to him at which point I said no and asked if she would transfer my call to the Chief Constables office.

He response was no, she could not connect me to the chief constables office as he was far too busy to deal with member of the public and it was force policy that no member of the public would be put through to the chief constables office.

I informed her of my FOIA request and the nature of Mr Cleughs response and asked her to identify that policy and where it can be located within your organisation.

She could not identify the policy or it's location and specified that this information was imparted to her during her training by the training officers.

I asked to speak to any senior member of staff in her direct line of authority but no supervisor, manager or head of department above her was presently available whereupon she transferred me to the control room.

I was connected to Paul 5177, I explained the situation to him and the details regarding Northumbria Police Policy regarding the refusal to connect a member of the public to the chief constables office.

"Paul 5177" claimed to be fully aware of the policy and indeed was intimately familiar with it and so I asked him to identify the policy and where it is located within the organisation.

His response was I needed to submit a FOIA request and he refused to provide any information citing to supply it would breach DPA.

He was asked to specify how DPA applies and he simply refused to state any information other than he will not supply it under DPA.

I asked to speak to his supervisor and was told he will not transfer the call to his supervisor as that is not "what we do in this organisation"

I asked him to register a formal complaint regarding his behaviour and he again refused to do so before terminating the call.

Please register this as a formal complaint against Northumbria Police for the behaviour of "Paul 5177" and the apparent commission of a criminal offence under section 77 of the FOIA by Northumbria Police for withholding information regarding a "policy" which staff are apparently intimately familiar with, which the organisation has failed to disclose.

In addition I have been provided with information which appears to confirm that the Northumbria Police Legal Department is aware of my attempts to speak to them regarding an allegation of crime allegedly being investigated by Northumbria Police officers, but the person making the enquiries on my behalf was informed that they were well aware of my name however it was on a blacklist and they were not to have contact with me.

In light of Mr Cleughs FOIA response it would appear that this information that I am blacklisted within Northumbria Police indicates a severe level of corruption discrimination and adverse treatment of me as a member of the public in breach of the requirements of law.

Please register this as a formal complaint also.

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/i...

Yours faithfully,

W Hunter