Police force refuses to name suspects wanted for violent crimes, citing data protection rules (12 August 2015)

West Midlands Police have refused to give the names of suspects on the run for serious crimes like murder and rape, saying that revealing their identities would breach data protection laws.

The Daily Mail reports that although some of the men wanted for serious crimes have been on the run for more than a decade, West Midlands Police say privacy “outweighs public interest”.

It is reported that two of the men are wanted for a murder carried out in 1996 – and a third man for a murder carried out in 2005.

The refusal to provide the names of suspects and photographs of the wanted men has been criticised by a former officer in the force – as well as MPs.

Conservative MP Phillip Davies has accused the police of protecting criminals – but West Midlands Police says it releases names on a case-by-case basis.

The force believes that, of four suspects wanted in connection with murder, two have since died and two have fled the UK. Some of the other suspects are wanted in connection with rapes.

Mr Davies is a campaigner against “soft justice” and said:

“It is a shame the police are not more concerned with the rights of decent law-abiding people to go about their business safely.

“Whichever senior police officer doesn’t believe the public have the right to know which dangerous criminals are on the loose should reflect on whether they are in the right profession.”

Former serving police officer, Ray Egan, 75 – who served in the West Midlands Police Force from 1967 to 1993 – added:

“This isn’t the police force that I joined. To look at what is happening, it’s enough to make you jump off the cliffs of Dover.

“These criminals could still be committing crimes like murder and rape. I don’t know how they think they will catch them if no-one knows who they are.”

The policy came to light after the Birmingham Mail submitted a Freedom of Information (FOI) request to the West Midlands Police Force.

The FOI request asked for the number of wanted suspects on the run – and asked for supplementary information, including names and photographs.

The force replied that a total of 1,452 of its suspects were marked as “wanted” on the Police National Computer, but none was identified in the reply.

The force has also refused to name the ten suspects who have been missing the longest – quoting Section 40(2) of the Freedom of Information Act.

Section 40(2) covers the release of information relating to personal data.

A spokesman for he West Midlands Police Force added:

“It would be unfair to release this information where any person could be identified from the data – and in this case the right to privacy outweighs any public interest in release.”

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