Call retention
Freedom of Information (FOI) Act request ref: 23/5443
Version Date: 28/09/2023
The Call Management and Communications Unit have provided the following information:
How long do the police keep recordings of phone calls generally?
How long do the police keep recordings of phone calls when a matter is an ongoing matter?
Not all calls are recorded within Force. There are physical and virtual Red Box Recorders installed at Middlemoor and Crownhill. All telephony & radio communications (incoming and outgoing) within the Control Rooms and Force Contact Centres are recorded. This includes 999 calls, 101 calls and Airwave radio traffic.
Other departments that also have all calls recorded on Red Box are the Telephone Survey Unit, the Victim Care Team and Major Crime Teams.
Red Box calls are kept for a minimum of six years, it is only calls on the Redbox system that are kept and this is relative to closed or ongoing matters.
Information held by the Police is managed by MOPI (Management of Police Information) – see link below:
https://www.college.police.uk/app/information-management/management-police-information
The review schedules for different offence groups summarised below:
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Group 1 – serious offences and public protection matters
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Retain until the subject has reached 100 years of age, then carry out a manual review.
Review every 10 years to ensure adequacy and necessity. |
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Group 2 – other sexual and violent offences |
Review after an initial 10-year clear period.
If the subject is deemed to pose a high risk of harm, retain and review after a further 10-year clear period. |
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Group 3 – all other offences |
Retain for an initial six-year clear period, followed by subsequent five-year clear period reviews.
Either review and risk assess after a six-year clear period or carry out time-based disposal depending on force policy. |