General correspondence and handling complaints - Cleveland Police and Crime Commissioner

What personal information do we keep?

You may contact the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner (OPCC) with a query or to express dissatisfaction (complaint.)

Your complaint may be with Cleveland Police, the Chief Constable, the PCC or OPCC staff.

You will be asked to provide the following:

Identity data: Name, gender, age, marital status, nationality;
Contact details data: Address, email, telephone number;
Family data: Family and dependents;
Special category data: Racial or ethnic origin, mental and physical health, details of injuries or medication/treatment received, political or religious beliefs. Information may also include details on trade union affiliation, genetics or your sexual life/orientation.
Complaints processing data: This includes outcomes of any initial complaint handling and service recovery. In addition, it may include any formal decisions following statutory review of complaints investigated by the police.

How we do collect your personal information?

We collect data when you correspond with us by post, telephone, email, on social media, via online form or in other ways.

The OPCC also collects data when you express dissatisfaction with Cleveland Police. This may be by post, telephone, email, on social media, via online form or in other ways.

Why do we use your personal data?

The OPCC uses your information to respond to your query or to look into any expression of dissatisfaction (complaint). The OPCC keeps a record for monitoring purposes.

From time to time, we may contact you to ask you to take part in surveys. Surveys will ask for your views on the complaints service, which you received.

What is the legal basis for our use of your personal information?

The OPCC is a public authority and has certain powers and responsibilities. As a result, we process your personal data as part of our official authority and/or to work in the public interest. The OPCC relies on this when processing personal information when we receive correspondence.

We process complaints about the Chief Constable. This is part of our duty under the Police Reform & Social Responsibility Act 2011 and the Police Reform Act 2002.

The Chief Executive and Monitoring Officer are not delegated by the Police and Crime Panel to undertake initial handling of complaints against the PCC. This applies to complaints about his conduct and/or serious complaints of a criminal nature.

However, the Chief Executive may have and process personal data if a complaint is made. The data needs to be passed to the Police and Crime Panel, who deal with such matters.

You can find this legal duty in the Elected Local Policing Bodies (Complaints and Misconduct) Regulations 2020.

Why do we use special category data?

The OPCC may sometimes process data about you which is sensitive. This is known as special category data (as above).

Special category data requires higher levels of protection. We must have further justification for collecting, storing and using it.

The OPCC only processes this type of data in the course of its investigation into your query or complaint on the basis that either:

You have given explicit written consent; or
We need it for reasons of substantial public interest; or
It is necessary to establish, exercise or defend a legal claims; or
You have made the information public; or
It is necessary to protect your vital interests; or
We need to archive in the public interest, for scientific or historical research purposes or statistical purposes.

We may need to approach you for written consent. This lets us process certain sensitive personal data.

In these circumstances, you will be given full details of the information required as well as why it is needed. This allows you to consider whether you want to give consent.

How do we handle your personal information?

The OPCC handles your personal information according to Part 2 of the UK Data Protection Act 2018. The Act applies the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) standards for processing data considered to be ‘general data’.

We hold your personal data securely on our computer systems or in physical files. Our staff, partners, contractors and volunteers access information when needed for a lawful purpose.

The OPCC commits to making sure that personal and sensitive information is accurate and up to date. In addition, we commit to making sure that information is only used for the purpose intended and is securely protected from inappropriate access.

We regularly review personal information and assess whether it is lawful for us to keep it. When we no longer need for a purpose listed in this notice, or there is no longer a lawful purpose for processing it, we will destroy it safely.

The OPCC commits to making sure you can find out about your personal information. We are also committed to you being able to access it and to have the right to challenge its accuracy.

Who do we share your personal information with?

The OPCC only shares your personal data with third party organisations if necessary for the purpose of resolving your query/complaint. We will ask your consent before we do so.

The OPCC may share your data with the police or the Independent Office for Police Complaints. We do that if we believe there is a legal obligation for us to do so, or if we had a legitimate belief that there was a safeguarding concern.

How do we keep your personal information safe?

The OPCC takes the security of your personal information very seriously.

We use a variety of security measures, including encryption and access controls. Measures help to protect the security, integrity and availability of your information.

The OPCC works hard to maintain physical, electronic and procedural safeguards to protect your information in line with the Act.

Areas, where we store personal information, are restricted to our own and partner agency staff. Areas are only accessible to staff with the appropriate identification.