Urgent action needed on police records as West Midlands Police are criticised for poor recordkeeping
Urgent action needed on police records as West Midlands Police are criticised for poor recordkeeping re Aston Villa v Maccabe match
The Campaign for Records and the Archives and Records Association continue to call for police records in England and Wales to be brought within public records legislation.
The Home Office has consistently responded to these calls by saying that the current code of practice on police record-keeping, which was introduced in 2023, is sufficient. The code is due to be formally reviewed in 2028 and the Home Secretary has indicated that they will be sticking to that review date, despite an ongoing list of police forces in England and Wales (although mainly England) being criticised for poor recordkeeping.
The longer police forces in England and Wales are left to interpret the guidelines as they see fit, without firm legislation to enforce compliance, the more records – records that could be vital for reparative justice – are lost or mishandled.
The latest instance is in the case of West Midlands Police’s handling of the Aston Villa/Maccabe Tel Aviv match:
“The interim report from His Majesty's Inspector of Constabulary (HMIC), Sir Andy Cooke is effectively an update on a review his team are undertaking into West Midlands Police.
He says it's not a final report, he says, but his preliminary views include:
West Midlands Police had "focused on reducing the risk of short-term disorder and long-term damage to local community relations", but "lacked the necessary foresight to recognise the long-term, global consequences" of its decision-making
He said there was a lack of effective local community engagement over the decision, and the force had exhibited poor record keeping - including failing to record a video meeting with Dutch police
Cooke added that "the emphasis with which the force made the case" gave the Safety Advisory Group (SAG) "little or no option but to accept that reducing to zero the ticket allocation for away fans was the only viable course of action to protect the public"
But, he said, the recommendation to the SAG "should have been subject to greater challenge and consideration" within West Midlands Police”
Other recent cases include:
Northumberland Police destroying records regarding the policing of the Orgreave miners’ strike
South Yorkshire Police reprimanded by the ICO for deleting body-worn camera footage
Cover photo by: Wesley Tingey on Unsplash