Are the York police in Canada taking “personal information” a tad too far? Jesse McLean reports:
York Regional Police refuse to release the occurrence reports on lost or stolen weapons, claiming the details on how the equipment went missing are officers’ private personal information.
The reports would likely show who lost the weapons, as well as where and how they went missing. But that’s considered private information and can’t be released without the permission of each officer who has missing equipment, said the force’s freedom of information analyst.
“If they’re losing something, that’s their personal information,” said Janet Ryland. “They might not have lost it in the line of duty, I don’t know, I haven’t gone through every single report. I’m just saying that’s their personal information.”
The Star requested the reports through access to information legislation as part of an ongoing investigation into lost or stolen weapons from police forces across the Greater Toronto Area.
Even with the officers’ names removed, York Regional Police say the information in the reports is private.
Read more in the Toronto Star. For my money, such data should be subject to freedom of information requests as it is taxpayer-funded equipment being lost and the public should be able to find out how often this occurs and under what circumstances.