Freedom of Information requests

[Joe K]

I thought of another good question, about rights to CCTV footage of oneself, to ask the Gloucestershire Police and Crime Panel, but as I brought up the page, I noticed this...

Special note for this authority!

A Police and Crime Panel scrutinises the work of the Police and Crime Commissioner.
Please consider if your request would be better directed to the police force (responsible for operational policing) or the Police and Crime Commissioner (responsible for strategy and oversight).

I didn't see it when I made my first request. Maybe I just wasn't very observant. I can't help wondering, though, if it wasn't put in place after that request was read, to forestall any further ones. I certainly don't have much to ask Martin Surl, so I guess I'll have to direct both questions to the police force instead...

[Joe K]

For Gloucestershire Constabulary:

Given the availability of pixelation to protect the identities of third parties, is there any reason why custody room footage should be denied to a member of the public who was filmed inside such a room, if he or she requests it?

www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/right_to_view_ones_own_custody_r/new

[Joe K]

Well, the acknowledgements are coming in, but it'll be a wait for answers...

[Deleted]

So, when exactly did you make the request to view the footage? If it was within the 28 days (which seems a really short time anyway), then they denied you your legal rights.

[Joe K]

I spent over twenty minutes going back through incoming email to try locate the one that told me the footage couldn't be released because of other detainees in the room. It led me to reviewing, and following up on, at least one other conversation with Charlie Laporte, but then I had to drive someone somewhere, and my search was postponed.

What makes things more difficult is that there are several conversations where responses ceased to be forthcoming, leading to new ones, from different angles, and some of the responses were in file form, which, after a computer crash, I can't read until some software is reloaded. Not that the police are deliberately dragging their heels in the hope of 'timing out'...

I'm pursuing a proper response because I find I hard to trust anything less, even if it seems to be faster. A proper answer may encourage more people to obtain information that could lead to abusive, or even just incompetent cops being taken to task.

[Joe K]

Well, I thought I'd followed up on that converation with Charlie Laporte. I may have held off sending it then switched off the computer. Or, it crashed, pre-send, while my youngest was using it (normally, I'd send or save an email before handing it over).

[Deleted]

I consider that my FoI request to the city council was successful. They replied, very quickly, that: "There may be opportunities for existing camera locations to be moved. However, these locations have not been agreed and each potential new location will be considered on a case by case basis." This is a bit different from the police view that Organ's Alley can't have a CCTV camera.

[Joe K]

I accidentally sent my request about partneship constitutions to the county council rather than city. I've sent a new one and changed the link.

[Joe K]

New request about Gloucester cycling groups:

www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/gloucester_cycling_groups_consul/new

Edit: I forget to use the hypertext.

[Deleted]

Nice one. If I wanted to make them look stupid - which wouldn't be too difficult - I'd ask when Gloucester City Council ceased to have a tree warden group, and why they still claim in their Draft Open Space Strategy (December 2012) that there is still a tree warden group in Gloucester, that is, supposedly, one of their partner organisations.

[Joe K]

New request about whether police, as a public body, should block any members of the public from their Twitter accounts:

www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/blocking_of_members_of_the_publi/new

[Joe K]

Time to bump this back up.

BBC are taking a very long time to answer what should be a very simple question about complaints received...

How many complaints were received concerning the broadcast on Radio

4, in the afternoon, and, in at least one week, during school

holidays, of 'The Corrupted', by GF Newman, a drama thick with

scenes of a violent and/or sexual nature?

[Joe K]

I just sent an email to Rachel, cc'd to several individuals including Matt Bishop and Tim Wood, noting that she'd had no answer to her complaint about the partnership's behaviour. Two 'MAILER-DAEMON' emails came back. One said Tim Wood's mailbox was full, the other said 'relaying denied' to Matt Bishop. All of which suggests to me that even emails to officers from Barton police are blocked now.

They are now perilously close to refusing to even answer FoI requests from me, for all the useful info they have provided...

[Joe K]

Best bump this with the one I keep coming back to...

Dear British Broadcasting Corporation,

How many complaints were received concerning the broadcast on Radio
4, in the afternoon, and, in at least one week, during school
holidays, of 'The Corrupted', by GF Newman, a drama thick with
scenes of a violent and/or sexual nature?

[Joe Hunter 12]

I know it annoys you.