Role of Police Liaison Officers

The request was refused by Sussex Police.

Dear Sussex Police,

I am seeking the following information regarding Sussex
Police's "police liaison officers" deployed at marches and protests in Sussex:

1. Policy and operational documents produced or adopted by Sussex Police relating to the role and function of police
liaison officers.

2. Standard Operational Procedures (SOPs) for police liaison
officers.

3. Reporting procedures for police liaison officers, and their position in public order policing structures.

4. Procedures for the retention and sharing of information or intelligence obtained by police liaison officers.

Yours faithfully,

Kevin Blowe

Sussex Police

Dear Mr Blowe,

Thank you for your request which was received by Sussex Police today.

This request will be dealt with under the terms of the Freedom of
Information Act 2000 and you will receive a response within the
statutory timescale of 20 working days as defined by the Act, from the
date of receipt. In some circumstances Sussex Police may be unable to
achieve this deadline. If this is likely you will be informed and given
a revised time-scale at the earliest opportunity.

Some requests may also require either full or partial transference to
another public authority in order to answer your query in the fullest
possible way. Again, you will be informed if this is the case.

Yours sincerely,

David Walters

Disclosure Assistant
Force Crime & Justice Department

Tel: 101

-----Original Message-----
From: Kevin Blowe [mailto:[FOI #174376 email]]
Sent: Saturday 24 August 2013 11:05
To: FOI
Subject: Freedom of Information request - Role of Police Liaison
Officers

Dear Sussex Police,

I am seeking the following information regarding Sussex Police's "police
liaison officers" deployed at marches and protests in Sussex:

1. Policy and operational documents produced or adopted by Sussex Police
relating to the role and function of police liaison officers.

2. Standard Operational Procedures (SOPs) for police liaison officers.

3. Reporting procedures for police liaison officers, and their position
in public order policing structures.

4. Procedures for the retention and sharing of information or
intelligence obtained by police liaison officers.

Yours faithfully,

Kevin Blowe

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Please use this email address for all replies to this request:
[FOI #174376 email]

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-------------------------------------------------------------------
Sussex Police – Serving Sussex
We want to know your views – see what’s new and give us your feedback and suggestions at www.sussex.police.uk
If you have received this message in error, please contact the sender as soon as possible – you may not copy it, or make use of any information contained in it for any purpose, or disclose its contents to any other person. Messages sent and received by Sussex Police are not private and may be the subject of monitoring.

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Sussex Police

1 Attachment

Sussex Police – Serving Sussex
We want to know your views – see what’s new and give us your feedback and
suggestions at www.sussex.police.uk
If you have received this message in error, please contact the sender as
soon as possible – you may not copy it, or make use of any information
contained in it for any purpose, or disclose its contents to any other
person. Messages sent and received by Sussex Police are not private and
may be the subject of monitoring.

Dear Sussex Police,

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

I am writing to request an internal review of Sussex Police's handling of my FOI request 'Role of Police Liaison Officers'.

The response has not been properly considered. It says that Sussex Police does not hold a record or document specific to my request but I have a right to information under the Freedom of Information Act and I do not have to specify particular documents. The response then goes on to indicate that relevant documents DO exist, but that they are are unavailable because they are 'under review'. This is not a ground for refusing to release information: Sussex Police is currently dealing with public order situations where Police Liaison Officers are used, most recently at protests in Balcombe, and those officers are deployed based on existing policies relating to their role and function and on currently-used standard operating procedures. I have a right under the Act to copies of these documents.

The response by Sussex Police is in marked contrast to the far more detailed and transparent release of information on the same issue by the Metropolitan Police (see https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/r...)

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

Yours faithfully,

Kevin Blowe

Sussex Police

Dear Mr Blowe,

Thank you for your e-mail and your request for an Internal Review of FOI
Ref 694/13 has been noted and referred this morning to the Force
Information Manager who will respond to you directly in due course

Regards

Roger Brace
Freedom of Information Officer
Force Crime & Justice Department

Tel: 101 Ext: 45251

-----Original Message-----
From: Kevin Blowe [mailto:[FOI #174376 email]]
Sent: Thursday 05 September 2013 11:26
To: FOI
Subject: Internal review of Freedom of Information request - Role of
Police Liaison Officers

Dear Sussex Police,

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

I am writing to request an internal review of Sussex Police's handling
of my FOI request 'Role of Police Liaison Officers'.

The response has not been properly considered. It says that Sussex
Police does not hold a record or document specific to my request but I
have a right to information under the Freedom of Information Act and I
do not have to specify particular documents. The response then goes on
to indicate that relevant documents DO exist, but that they are are
unavailable because they are 'under review'. This is not a ground for
refusing to release information: Sussex Police is currently dealing with
public order situations where Police Liaison Officers are used, most
recently at protests in Balcombe, and those officers are deployed based
on existing policies relating to their role and function and on
currently-used standard operating procedures. I have a right under the
Act to copies of these documents.

The response by Sussex Police is in marked contrast to the far more
detailed and transparent release of information on the same issue by the
Metropolitan Police (see
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/r...
ncoming-422052)

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

Yours faithfully,

Kevin Blowe

-------------------------------------------------------------------
Please use this email address for all replies to this request:
[FOI #174376 email]

Disclaimer: This message and any reply that you make will be published
on the internet. Our privacy and copyright policies:
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/help/offi...

If you find this service useful as an FOI officer, please ask your web
manager to link to us from your organisation's FOI page.

-------------------------------------------------------------------
Sussex Police – Serving Sussex
We want to know your views – see what’s new and give us your feedback and suggestions at www.sussex.police.uk
If you have received this message in error, please contact the sender as soon as possible – you may not copy it, or make use of any information contained in it for any purpose, or disclose its contents to any other person. Messages sent and received by Sussex Police are not private and may be the subject of monitoring.

hide quoted sections

Sussex Police

Dear Mr Blowe,

I refer to your request under the FOIA for information held by Sussex
Police in relation to Police Liaison Officers (PLO's), and in particular
for an Internal Review into our response to that request.

I have reviewed the response we provided in relation to the specific
points you requested information about and have also liaised with our
Public Order staff to ensure an accurate reply to you.

The situation is that currently Sussex Police does not have any agreed
formal policies, operational documents  or SoP's relating to our use of
PLO's.  To date we have been working in line with the national guidance
produced and owned by the College of Policing and ACPO.

We are however currently drafting a formal policy and guidance on the
deployment of PLO's in Sussex.  However these documents are still being
prepared and have therefore been approved for use or publication.  Once
this is complete they will of course be available for publication and
disclosure.

Clearly in this situation our original response was correct in that we do
not hold the required information at this time.  I do accept that the
inference in the response to your question 1 was slightly misleading in
that it indicated that a current policy on PLO's was being reviewed.  In
fact it is our current Public Order Policy that is under review.  The
current policy does not detail PLO's, hence the review.

The situation in relation to SoP's  in relation to PLO's  (your question
2), is again that we do not hold the requested information.  The College
of Policing and ACPO are, as stated, developing a national SoP.  We may
simply adopt the national SoP or develop our own along the agreed lines. 
However in any event we do not currently have an SoP for deployment of
PLO's in public order situations.

In summary I am satisfied that we have correctly responded to your request
in that we do not hold the information relative to your request.  In
relation to our draft policy, this has yet to be approved or adopted by
Sussex Police as formal policy and so we would refer to Section 22 of the
FOIA as "information intended for future publication".  It would clearly
not be appropriate to release documents or information that is not
approved by Sussex Police and therefore does not direct our deployment of
PLO's  In addition such information may be inaccurate and not relative to
the way we currently deploy PLO's.

I would remind you that should you disagree with my decisions in relation
to the Internal Review you have the right to escalate matters to the ICO. 
Details of how to contact them may be found on their website,
[1]www.ico.gov.uk.

Yours sincerely,

Alan Ladley
Force Information Manager

Sussex Police – Serving Sussex
We want to know your views – see what’s new and give us your feedback and
suggestions at www.sussex.police.uk
If you have received this message in error, please contact the sender as
soon as possible – you may not copy it, or make use of any information
contained in it for any purpose, or disclose its contents to any other
person. Messages sent and received by Sussex Police are not private and
may be the subject of monitoring.

References

Visible links
1. file://www.ico.gov.uk