Met Police Alerts ICO After It Shares 1,000 Victims’ Email Adresses

The Metropolitan Police has admitted to accidentally sharing over one thousand email addresses of crime victims with other victims.

Scotland Yard has apologised for the incident and has said it is reviewing its procedures.

‘Human error’

The “human error” occurred on Monday when 1,136 emails were sent out in seven batches of between 119 and 198 recipients. The Met said that the vast majority of those affected were the victims or “lower-end crime, although one person was a victim of “common assault”. A total of 958 people affected were victims of theft, while 100 suffered criminal damage.

The Met commented that that the Crime Recording and Investigation Bureau (CRIB) was emailing a survey to victims about its creation of a single telephone investigation unit for London when the incident happened and that no other details were disclosed.

Everyone affected is being contacted to explain what happened and the Information Commissioner’s Office has been informed.

“We have recently been informed of a possible data breach which may involve the Metropolitan Police,” said the ICO. “We will be making enquiries into the circumstances of the alleged breach of the Data Protection Act before deciding what action, if any, needs to be taken.”

Last year, the ICO reprimanded Lancashire Police for accidentally publishing sensitive personal details of an individual’s complaint on its website, while the retention of innocent people’s profiles on the national police DNA database has also drawn criticism.

It’s been a busy week for the ICO after it imposed a £140,000 fine on Midlothian Council after it disclosed sensitive data about children and their carers on five separate occasions.