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The use and disclosure of personal data is governed in the United Kingdom by the Data Protection Act 2018 (the Act). Under the Act the Chief Constable of Staffordshire Police is registered as a data controller. In the rest of this privacy notice, the Chief Constable of Staffordshire Police is referred to as we or us.
This privacy notice explains:
We will treat information you provide to us in using this website treated in confidence and we will not disclose it to third parties unless we are required to do so by law, or as explained in this privacy notice.
We gather information about site usage to help the development and improvement of services to the public, and to protect the integrity of our systems from malicious users. We also gather information through the various functions available on the site that allow you to provide us with information (such as online forms and the live-chat function) for the purposes described later in this privacy notice. At the moment this information consists of:
Personal data is any information we handle that relates to an identified or identifiable natural person. An 'identifiable natural person' is anyone who can be identified, directly or indirectly from information, including by reference to a name, identification number, location data, online identifier or to one or more factors specific to the physical, physiological, genetic, mental, economic, cultural or social identity of that natural person.
Different units within our Information Governance and Assurance department manage our data protection compliance, how to contact the relevant department in relation to your rights is covered later in this policy.
We take our data protection responsibilities seriously. We take great care to ensure we process your personal data properly to maintain your trust and confidence. You can contact our Data Protection Officer via email or post if you have any questions or concerns about how we process your personal data.
Post:
The Data Protection Officer
Staffordshire Police Headquarters
Weston Road
Staffordshire
ST18 0YY
Email: [email protected]
We have a legal duty to uphold the law, prevent crime, bring offenders to justice, and protect the public. To do this we process your personal information for carrying out a range of activities commonly known as the ‘policing purpose’. These include:
We also process personal data for purposes in support of the policing purpose. These include: recruitment; administration of current and former employees, contractors, and volunteers; property and asset management; financial management; media relations management, complaints handling; research, including surveys; and provision of educational programmes and support.
We process information relating to a range of individuals, including:
We may process personal data relating to or consisting of the following categories:
The types of personal data we process will vary depending on the purpose. We aim to process the minimum amount of personal data necessary for the relevant purpose. You should not assume that we hold personal data in all of the categories identified for every person whose personal data we process.
The categories identified may not be complete as occasionally we may gather personal data in other categories for the purposes described.
We collect personal data from a variety of sources, including:
Where we process personal data for the policing purpose our legal basis for processing is that it is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in us. Our functions and the official authority vested in us are set out, in the main, in the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984, the Police Act 1996, and the Police Reform Act 2002.
Where we process personal data relating to criminal convictions and offences, that processing is necessary for reasons of substantial public interest and involves the exercise of a function conferred on us by an enactment or rule of law. We have an appropriate policy document (as required under the Act) for that processing.
Where we process personal data for purposes other than the policing purpose our legal basis for processing will vary depending on the circumstances. Ordinarily, the relevant legal basis is that the processing is:
and on occasion
We take the security of all personal data under our control seriously. We comply with our legal obligations regarding security, relevant parts of the ISO27001 Information Security Standard, and where appropriate the College of Policing Authorised Professional Practice guidance on Information Assurance.
We ensure that appropriate policy, training, technical and procedural measures are in place, including audit and inspection, to protect our manual and electronic information systems from data loss and misuse. We only permit access when there is a legitimate reason and under strict guidelines on what use may be made of any personal data contained within them. We continuously manage and enhance our compliance with relevant standards and guidance to achieve adequate and up-to-date personal data security.
We may disclose personal data to a wide variety of recipients in any part of the world (including outside of the United Kingdom and the European Economic Area), including to those from whom we originally obtain personal data. Recipients may include:
We decide on disclosure case-by-case, disclosing only the personal information that is necessary and proportionate to a specific purpose and with appropriate controls and safeguards in place.
Where you have provided your personal data to us for the purposes of the police constable recruitment process, your data, including biographical monitoring information, will be shared with the College of Policing.
It will be stored on their secure network or within their Assessment Information Management System (AIMS). From this information, your name, email address and candidate reference number will be uploaded to the new online assessment platform for constable recruitment and shared with the third party provider hosting the system in order to progress your application virtually.
Because of the way the website is set up, all completed online forms are automatically sent securely to the central police IT team responsible for delivery of the National Police Chiefs' Council Digital Policing Portfolio, as well as us.
If we make disclosures outside of the United Kingdom and the European Economic Area to locations which do not have as extensive data protection laws we ensure that there are appropriate safeguards in place to certify that the personal data disclosed is adequately protected.
We keep your personal data for as long as necessary for the particular purpose or purposes for which we hold it.
If we place any of your personal data on the Police National Computer it will be retained, reviewed and deleted in accordance with agreed national retention periods, which are subject to periodic change.
We will retain records containing personal data relating to criminal investigations, intelligence, public protection, and custody in accordance with the College of Policing guidance on the Management of Police Information.
Under the Act you have a number of rights that you can exercise in relation to personal data we process about you however all of these rights do not apply when it comes to Law Enforcement processing and even then the applicable rights do not apply in all circumstances, there are exemptions and restrictions that can be legitimately applied to prevent individuals from exercising rights. You do not have to pay to exercise your rights (other than a reasonable fee if a request for access is clearly unfounded or excessive but we agree to fulfil it anyway).
We sometimes need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your authority to exercise the rights.
Right of Access – Previously a Subject Access request: You can request access to the personal data we hold about you free of charge. Normally we will provide it within one month of receipt of your request unless an exemption applies. Find out about the details of the application process, known as ‘Right of Access’.
Alternatively individuals may contact Staffordshire Police in person, via telephone or social media to make the request, however the preferred method is via the application process.
Rights of access do not apply to the processing of ‘relevant personal data’, i.e. we can limit confirmation that we are processing data and access to personal data if it is necessary and proportionate in order to:
Where a limitation is in place the individual must be given an explanation of the reasons, unless providing this information undermines the purpose of imposing the restriction.
Right to be Informed: You are entitled to be told how we obtain your personal information and how we use, retain, and store it, and who we share it with. This privacy notice gives you that information, as well as telling you what your rights are under the relevant laws.
Right to Rectification: If we hold personal data about you that is inaccurate or incomplete you have the right to ask us to correct it. Staffordshire Police can refuse this request where it is necessary and proportionate or relates to ‘relevant personal data’, i.e. to avoid obstructing an official or legal inquiry, investigation or procedure, or to avoid prejudicing the prevention, detection, investigation or prosecution of criminal offences or the execution of criminal penalties, as detailed above.
You can ask us to correct your personal data by emailing [email protected]
We will reply to you within one month unless the request is complex.
Right to Request Erasure: Under certain circumstances you have the right to ask us to delete your personal data to prevent its continued processing where there is no justification for us to retain it. The circumstances most likely to apply are:
The right of erasure does not apply if we are processing your personal data:
The erasure of personal data relating to criminal offences cannot be considered until its full period of retention has been reached (as detailed in the National Retention and Disposal Schedule which has been adopted by Staffordshire Police).
Right to Restrict Processing: Under certain circumstances you have the right to ask us to restrict the processing of your personal data. This may be in cases where:
You can ask us to restrict processing of your personal data by contacting the Data Protection Officer [email protected].
Right to Data Portability – not applicable to law enforcement processing: You have the right to obtain and reuse your personal information for your own purposes, transferring it from one environment to another. This right only applies to personal data provided by an individual, where the processing is based on their consent or for the performance of a contract and when that processing is carried out by automated means.
Right to Object: You have the right to object to:
Any objection must be on grounds relating to your particular situation. If you want to exercise your right to object you can do so by contacting the Data Protection Officer [email protected]
Rights related to automated decision making and profiling: You have the right not to be subject to a decision when it is based on solely automated processing (including profiling) and which produces a legal effect or similar significant effect on you. This right does not apply if the decision is authorised by law, is necessary for entering into or performance of a contract, or is based on your consent. We are unlikely to carry out automated decision making because our processes involve some type of human interaction and decision-making. Profiling is any form of automated processing of personal data intended to evaluate certain personal aspects about you to predict things about you such as your behaviour, interests, movements or performance at work. We do not currently carry out automated profiling. If you have any questions about automated decision-making or automated profiling you can raise them by contacting the Data Protection Officer [email protected].
An individual has the right to withdraw their consent – This does not apply to offenders or suspected offenders as the processing is necessary to perform a task within the public interest without their consent being given. This does apply to victims who have consented to their personal data being processed i.e. victim services, this consent can be withdrawn at any time by contacting the Staffordshire Victim Gateway:
Telephone: 0330 0881 1339
Monitoring
Staffordshire Police may monitor or record and retain telephone calls, texts, emails and other electronic communications to and from the force in order to deter, prevent and detect inappropriate or criminal activity, to ensure security, and to assist the purposes described under section 1 above. Staffordshire Police does not place a pre-recorded ‘fair processing notice’ on telephone lines that may receive emergency calls (including misdirected ones) because of the associated risk of harm that may be caused through the delay in response to the call.
A 'cookie' is a piece of information stored on your computer which allows web servers to collect information from your visit to this website. It saves a small amount of data to your computer, which the website then uses on repeat visits.
We use cookies on this website to improve user experience and for essential functionality. We do not use them for identification, monitoring, or profiling purposes. To find out how to reject, delete or update your cookie preferences in your browser you need to know what browser you use and what version of it you are using. Most browsers have guidelines on how to adjust cookie settings through their 'Help' menu.
We use the following cookies on the website for the reasons explained below.
Google Analytics sets the following cookies:
Cookie name | Expiration time | Purpose |
_ga | Two years | This cookie is used to distinguish users, which helps us count how many people visit our website |
_gat | Ten minutes | Used to manage the rate at which page view requests are made |
Cookie name | Expiration time | Purpose |
_utma | Two years | Like _ga, this lets us know if you’ve visited before, so we can count how many of our visitors are new to the site or to a certain page |
_utmb | 30 minutes | This works with _utmc to calculate the average length of time you spend on the site |
_utmc | When you close the browser | This works with _utmb to calculate when you close your browser |
_utmz | Six months | This tells us how you reached the site (eg from another website or a search engine) |
If you don't want to send information to Google Analytics, you can use Google's opt-out browser add-on or you can configure your browser to enable you to choose which cookies you allow to be created.
We use cookies from the Google Doubleclick and Facebook Pixel services to track activity of website visitors originating from media sources. We use anonymised data from this service to optimise our online advertising activity for recruitment. In certain cases we may use ‘remarketing’ services to target our ads to you based on your prior use of our site when you visit other sites included within an online advertising network. If you do not wish to be tracked in this way, you can opt out via the following:
Facebook Pixel
We use session cookies to enable us to identify requests from the same browser during a limited time window, and provide a way to remember page changes, or item or data selection, for the duration of that session.
Session cookies are essential for the website to operate and are set upon your arrival to the site. These cookies are deleted when you close your browser.
You may see pop-up messages on our site. For example, a pop-up explaining our use of cookies. Once you have seen these messages we store cookies to ensure we do not show you the same message again.
The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) regulates the processing of personal data. You can complain to the ICO if you are unhappy with how we have processed your personal data.
The Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
Helpline number: 0303 123 1113
Information Commissioner's Office website
We last updated this privacy notice on 29 November 2019. We keep this privacy policy under regular review and update it if any of the information in it changes.