Concerns Over The Privacy Of Our Data
1 June 2015, 06:00 | Updated: 30 March 2016, 13:50
A new report claims police ask for permission to access our texts, emails and web searches once every 2 minutes.
Less than 8% of all requests are refused by senior officers.
The Big Brother Watch research found that UK forces made 733,237 requests for communications data between January 2012 and last December, with 679,073 granted internally and 54,164 (7.9%) rejected.
The average approval rate across all forces was 96%.
Northumbria, Cleveland and Durham Police all feature in the top 10 forces in the country for allowing requests.
Top Ten Forces By Number of Requests
| Rank | Force | Number of Requests |
| 1 | Metropolitan Police | 177,287 |
| 2 | West Midlands Police | 99,444 |
| 3 | Police Scotland | 62,075 |
| 4 | Northumbria Police | 21,345 |
| 5 | West Yorkshire Police | 19,757 |
| 6 | Devon and Cornwall Police | 19,731 |
| 7 | Essex Police | 19,541 |
| 8 | Greater Manchester Police | 19,037 |
| 9 | Avon And Somerset Constabulary | 18,923 |
| 10 | Thames Valley Police | 17,562 |
Top Ten Forces For Allowing Requests
| Rank | Force | No of Requests | No of Refusals | % Refused |
| 1 | Cheshire Constabulary | 5,848 | 7 | 0.1% |
| 2 | Warwickshire Police | 1,807 | 4 | 0.2% |
| = 3 | Cleveland Police | 4,276 | 14 | 0.3% |
| = 3 | Northumbria Police | 21,345 | 54 | 0.3% |
| 4 | Hertfordshire Constabulary | 13,914 | 58 | 0.4% |
| 5 | British Transport Police | 3,539 | 16 | 0.5% |
| 6 | Durham Constabulary | 6,812 | 41 | 0.6% |
| = 7 | Cumbria Police | 9,805 | 74 | 0.8% |
| = 7 | West Merica Police | 11,233 | 88 | 0.8% |
| 8 | Leicestershire Police | 9,438 | 87 | 0.9% |
