Personal data storage (FOI Ref: 473A/25)
Request
Your original request reads:
How long are the police required to keep footage/data/files/records once a complaint has been filed and finalised?
We clarified with you on 3rd March and your final clarification was received on 4th March 2025. Your amended request reads:
In relation to complaints (not crime but about the organisation) made to police:
How long are the police required to keep footage/data/files/records once a complaint has been filed and finalised?
Footage means = CCTV/Video/Camera footage
Data means = indeed custody record(s) log for a person in police custody such as observation record and any incident that has happened whilst a person in held in police custody.
Record means = any record, such as when I mentioned “data”, in regards to a person who had made a complaint regarding the police (paperwork files) and also custody log record(s), in regards to an individual’s dentition in police custody.
Complaint means = a complaint I have made about police
Response
Please find enclosed our response.
For Data and records:
|
Custody medical records MK 62 |
Doctors’ visits and examination records (police form as completed by doctor, not doctor's own notes) |
6 years |
|
Custody Records - paper |
Paper custody records - completed when system goes down |
Retain in line with crime file, 6 years if no crime file |
|
Crime file / |
Crime reports, statements, MG case documents |
For MoPI1 & MoPI2 offences: Review every 10 years |
|
Crime file / |
Crime reports, statements, MG case documents |
For MoPI3 offences: minimum of 6 years |
Footage:
|
CCTV |
Closed Circuit Television Tapes. Video tapes/DVDs produced by any CCTV system used by a force e.g. custody |
90 days or if required evidentially relevant parts burned to DVD and retained as per MoPI |
|
CCTV |
Closed Circuit Television Tapes. Video tapes not owned by a force but needed for evidential purposes |
Minimum of 6 years / review as per nominal & crime file / MoPI |
|
Body Worn Video- Evidential |
Evidential BWV captures- crime or e.g. PSD related |
in line with MOPI/ other relevant retention |
|
Body Worn Video- Routine |
Routine BWV captures |
31 days |
For complaint records:
|
Professional Standards Investigations |
Counter Corruption Records |
Case by case on a come to notice basis. Consider retention in line with below guidelines, including length of service/ impact of potential employment outside WMP. |
|
Professional Standards Investigations |
Misconduct Records |
PSD system records prior to 2020- review on a come to notice basis. Records post 2020- MOPI grades, manually reviewed and considered for deletion at MOPI review date. Other/ paper records- consider for deletion in line with MOPI. All records- also consider any wider risks posed and length of service/ if still in employment/ employment outside WMP. (Up to state retirement age + 6 years, or longer if significant public interest/ public inquiry). |
Explanation
- MoPI stands for Management of Police Information.
- MoPI groups are used to categorize crimes for record management and retention.
- There are three MoPI groups: 1, 2, and 3.
- Group 1 is for serious offences, including those specified in the Criminal Justice Act 2003.
- Group 2 is for other sexual and violent offences.
- Group 3 is for all other offences.
- MoPI 1 files are kept for 100 years and reviewed every 10 years.
- MoPI 2 files are kept for 10 years and reviewed every 10 years.
- MoPI 3 files are kept for 6 years and can be destroyed without review.
The MoPI framework is a framework that doesn't specify how to handle each case. The information must have a policing purpose to be lawfully held.
You also wanted to make a Freedom of Information request for record(s), stored in His Majesty’s Prison’s: Please make you FOI application through the following site:
Make an FOI – Prisons and Probation Ombudsman (ppo.gov.uk)
As recommended as good practice by the Information Commissioner’s Office a version of this response may be published on the West Midlands Police website.