From: Greg Jones
Sent: 19 November 2010 15:21
To: Judith Jones
Cc: David Smith; Jonathan Bamford; Meagan Mirza; Steve Wood; Iain Bourne; Kirsty McCaskill; Robert Parker
Subject: Response to Telegraph enquiry about our position on crime-mapping 20101119

Thanks Judith,

The following response will now be sent out.

Kind regards

Greg

Dear *****

With regards to your query, please find below a link to the Information Commissioner’s response to the Home Office’s consultation on policing in the 21st Century. This response includes clarification of our views on the issue of crime mapping.

http://www.ico.gov.uk/about_us/consultations/~/media/documents/library/Data_Protection/Notices/ico_response_home_office_policing_21st_century_consultation.ashx

The relevant extract answering your query is below:

Crime mapping

We also support the drive to provide greater transparency on criminal activity in local areas. The consultation document includes a commitment that, from January 2011, crime data will be published at a level which allows the public to see what is happening on their streets and neighbourhoods. Crime mapping can be an effective means of letting people know what crimes are taking place in their local area and we have advised the Home Office and local forces on how such systems can be designed to take account of privacy risks - particularly when ‘point data mapping’ risks identifying individuals (especially innocent victims, witnesses or vulnerable offenders) or risks disclosure of sensitive personal information about those individuals if, for example, they have been the victim of a racially motivated crime or a sexual assault. We encourage the use of privacy friendly options that reduce the risks of identifying such individuals such as by merging adjoining postcodes in sparsely populated areas and banding together certain categories of crime. The ICO would be concerned if privacy risks arising from aggregation with other datasets in the public domain were not taken fully into account.

We recognise that there are demands from some quarters for even greater openness, with some people arguing for full disclosure of crime details as soon as possible after the event but it is important that privacy risks are managed carefully, especially as once this information is published on the internet, it is no longer possible to control what happens to it.

In addition to the above:

ICO spokesperson said: “We recognise the importance of this issue and are currently finalising more detailed advice on crime mapping which we hope to publish in the near future.”

Kind regards

Greg

Greg Jones r

Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, , Wilmslow, SK9 5AF.

T. 01625 545 832, . 0303 123 9070 www.ico.gov.uk.

 

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From: Judith Jones
Sent: 19 November 2010 15:11
To: Greg Jones
Cc: Jonathan Bamford; Meagan Mirza; Steve Wood; Iain Bourne; Kirsty McCaskill; Robert Parker; David Smith
Subject: Telegraph enquiry about our position on crime-mapping

Greg

As discussed, here is the link to our response to the Home Office’s consultation on policing in the 21st Century (on our website)

http://www.ico.gov.uk/about_us/consultations/~/media/documents/library/Data_Protection/Notices/ico_response_home_office_policing_21st_century_consultation.ashx

The relevant extract is:

Crime mapping

We also support the drive to provide greater transparency on criminal activity in local areas. The consultation document includes a commitment that, from January 2011, crime data will be published at a level which allows the public to see what is happening on their streets and neighbourhoods. Crime mapping can be an effective means of letting people know what crimes are taking place in their local area and we have advised the Home Office and local forces on how such systems can be designed to take account of privacy risks - particularly when ‘point data mapping’ risks identifying individuals (especially innocent victims, witnesses or vulnerable offenders) or risks disclosure of sensitive personal information about those individuals if, for example, they have been the victim of a racially motivated crime or a sexual assault. We encourage the use of privacy friendly options that reduce the risks of identifying such individuals such as by merging adjoining postcodes in sparsely populated areas and banding together certain categories of crime. The ICO would be concerned if privacy risks arising from aggregation with other datasets in the public domain were not taken fully into account.

We recognise that there are demands from some quarters for even greater openness, with some people arguing for full disclosure of crime details as soon as possible after the event but it is important that privacy risks are managed carefully, especially as once this information is published on the internet, it is no longer possible to control what happens to it.

You were proposing to send the link to the Telegraph with the additional line agreed with David that:  we recognise the importance of this issue.  We are finalising more detailed advice on crime mapping which we hope to publish shortly.

Judith

            Senior Policy Officer - Public Security, Government and Society                                                   

Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, , Wilmslow, SK9 5AF.

T. 01625 545804 www.ico.gov.uk