Body worn cameras

In order to comply with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR), where personal data relating to a data subject is collected, Lancashire County Council would like to provide you with the following details.

Identity and contact details of the data controller

  • Lancashire County Council, PO Box 78 County Hall, Fishergate, Preston, Lancashire, PR1 8XJ

Contact details of the data protection officer

  • Our Data Protection Officer is Paul Bond. You can contact him at dpo@lancashire.gov.uk or Lancashire County Council, PO Box 78 County Hall, Fishergate, Preston, Lancashire, PR1 8XJ

Purposes for processing

Lancashire County Council occasionally uses body worn cameras in order to protect council officers dealing with members of public in situations where they are particularly vulnerable to abuse or where there is an ongoing need to capture images or speech for evidential purposes.

Any use of body worn cameras is governed by internal policies and is conducted in accordance with the law. Lancashire County Council will never continuously record using body worn cameras and will only utilise such technology where there is a legitimate need to do so.

In the event that body worn cameras are in operation, Lancashire County Council operators will take all reasonable steps to make sure those captured in such footage are made aware that recording it taking place.

Category of personal data being processed

  1. Personal data (information relating to a living, identifiable individual)
  2. Special category personal data (racial, ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, trade union membership, and the processing of genetic data, biometric data for the purpose of uniquely identifying a natural person, data concerning health or data concerning a natural person's sex life or sexual orientation)

Legal basis for processing personal data

The legal basis for processing your personal data, in accordance with the UK GDPR is:

(c) Legal Obligation: the processing is necessary for you to comply with the law. You must reference the applicable legislation if you wish to rely on this basis for processing.

(d) Vital Interests: the processing is necessary to protect someone's life.

(e) Public Task: the processing is necessary for you to perform a task in the public interest or for your official functions, and the task or function has a clear basis in law. You must reference the applicable task/function and its' basis in law if you wish to rely on this basis for processing.

In this instance the legislation that informs this processing is as follows,

  • Section 163 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994
  • Crime and Disorder Act 1998
  • Criminal Procedures and Investigations Act 1996
  • Protection of Freedoms Act 2012
  • Health and Safety at Work Act 1974
  • In certain circumstances - Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) 2000

Depending upon the individual circumstances one or more of the above lawful basis for processing may be applied.

Human Rights Act 1998: Article 6 provides the right to a fair trial. All images captured through the use of a body worn camera have the potential to be used in court proceedings and must be safeguarded by an audit trail in the same way as any other evidence. Article 8 of the Act concerns the right for private and family life, home and correspondence. Recordings of individuals in a public place are only public for those present at the time and may still be regarded as potentially private. Any recorded conversation between individuals should always be regarded as private and users of body worn cameras will ensure that they refrain from recording anything which is beyond necessary with respect to a confrontational situation.

Legal basis for processing special categories of personal data

The legal basis for processing your special categories of personal data, in accordance with the UK GDPR is:

(b) Processing is necessary for the purposes of carrying out the obligations and exercising specific rights of the controller or of the data subject in the field of employment and social security and social protection law

(c) Processing is necessary to protect the vital interests of the data subject or of another natural person where the data subject is physically or legally incapable of giving consent.

(f) Processing is necessary for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims or whenever courts are acting in their judicial capacity.

(g) Processing is necessary for reasons of substantial public interest.

The substantial public interest condition met in these circumstances falls under the Data Protection Act 2018 Schedule 1 Part 2 (10) Preventing or detecting unlawful acts.

Recipients of the data

  • Police Forces
  • With members of the public under very strict Data Protection or Freedom of Information conditions

Information we share

  • Body worn camera visual and audio recordings

Any transfers to another country

  • No

Retention periods

Lancashire County Council will only store your information for as long as is legally required or in situations where there is no legal retention period they will follow established best practice.

File type Description  Security Retention period
Audio and visual recordings Audio and visual recordings made using body worn cameras Yes device and associated software is password protected and stored in staff only areas when not worn securely by staff member. Up to 6 weeks and then overwritten.

If footage is identified and utilised for specific purposes (for example law enforcement), footage will be retained for 7 years from closure of investigation.

Your rights

You have certain rights under the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR), these are the right:

  • to be informed via Privacy Notices such as this.
  • to withdraw your consent. If we are relying on your consent to process your data then you can remove this at any point.
  • of access to any personal information the council holds about yourself. To request a copy of this information you must make a subject access request in writing. You are entitled to receive a copy of your personal data within 1 calendar month of our receipt of your subject access request. If your request is complex then we can extend this period by a further two months, if we need to do this we will contact you. You can request a subject access request, either via a letter or via an email to Information Governance Team, address below.
  • of rectification, we must correct inaccurate or incomplete data within one month.
  • to erasure. You have the right to have your personal data erased and to prevent processing unless we have a legal obligation to process your personal information.
  • to restrict processing. You have the right to suppress processing. We can retain just enough information about you to ensure that the restriction is respected in future.
  • to data portability. We can provide you with your personal data in a structured, commonly used, machine readable form when asked.
  • to object. You can object to your personal data being used for profiling, direct marketing or research purposes.
  • in relation to automated decision making and profiling, to reduce the risk that a potentially damaging decision is taken without human intervention.

If you want to exercise any of these rights then you can do so by contacting:

Information Governance Team
Lancashire County Council
PO Box 78
County Hall
Preston
PR1 8XJ 

Or email: dpo@lancashire.gov.uk

To ensure that we can deal with your request as efficiently as possible you will need to include your current name and address, proof of identity (a copy of your driving licence, passport or two different utility bills that display your name and address), as much detail as possible regarding your request so that we can identify any information we may hold about you, this may include your previous name and address, date of birth and what council service you were involved with.

Further information

If you would like more information about this specific activity then please contact dpo@lancashire.gov.uk.

For more information about how we use personal information see Lancashire County Council's full privacy notice.

If you wish to raise a complaint on how we have handled your personal data, you can contact the Information Governance team who will investigate the matter.

Lancashire County Council, PO Box 78 County Hall, Fishergate, Preston, Lancashire, PR1 8XJ or email: dataprotection@lancashire.gov.uk

If you are not satisfied with our response or believe we are processing your personal data not in accordance with the law you can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).