2022/25053 - Previous Police Officer

REQUEST

We represent a client in a dispute with an individual named Marc Eckley. Mr Eckley alleges previously to have been a police officer, it is believed in an attempt to encourage people to contract with a company through which he offers private investigator services.

We request information to determine whether Mr Eckley has in fact ever been a police officer in this Police Force.

To assist with your initial searches, we believe, but cannot categorically confirm, that Mr Eckley’s middle name is John, and his date of birth is March 1968. He may appear in your records with his first name spelt as “Marc” or “Mark.”

RESPONSE

Section 40 third party detail

The exemption applicable to the information you have requested for this question can be found at Section 40(2) Personal Information, of the Act and this refusal notice is issued under Section 17.

Gwent Police is withholding the information you have requested on the basis that the exemption contained in s40(2) of the Freedom of Information Act applies in that the information you have requested is personal data of third parties and the disclosure of the data would breach one of the principles contained in the Data Protection Act. The relevant principle is the first principle which states that:

Personal data shall be processed fairly and lawfully and in particular shall not be processed unless –

(a) at least one of the conditions in Schedule 2 is met and

(b) in the case of sensitive personal data, at least one of the conditions in Schedule 3 is met

It is only necessary to consider (a) in respect of the information requested. The relevant condition in Schedule 2 is condition 6 which states that:

"The processing is necessary for the purposes of legitimate interests pursued by the data controller or by the third party or parties to whom the data are disclosed, except where the processing is unwarranted in any particular case by reason of prejudice to the rights and freedoms or legitimate interests of the data subject".