Data Ethics

Data ethics — Authorised Professional Practice

Summary

This authorised professional practice (APP) provides guidance on making ethical decisions concerning the collection, storage, sharing, or use of data. It outlines principles to assist police officers, staff, and volunteers in integrating ethical considerations into their data-related practices. The APP is directed at chief officers, senior leaders, data analysts, and all personnel involved in data management, as well as organizations like police and crime commissioners and the Information Commissioner’s Office. It advises completion of a data protection impact assessment (DPIA) when necessary, referencing external guidance documents alongside its own principles.

Key principles

1Ethical decision-making in data handling.
2Responsibilities of data controllers in compliance with legislation.
3Integration of ethical considerations into data practices.

Defined terms

Artificial intelligence (AI): Technologies with the ability to perform intellectual processes that would otherwise require human intelligence, such as visual perception, speech recognition and language translation.
Data controllers: Individuals who hold the legal responsibility for the way in which data is gathered, processed, stored and deleted under the Data Protection Act 2018. Chief constables are the legal controllers of police data.
Human-in-the-loop: The process of combining machine and human intelligence to inform decision making.
Process: Refers to the collecting, storing, sharing or use of data.

Full guidance

Guidance on making ethical decisions where data is being collected, stored, shared or used.

This page is from APP, the official source of professional practice for policing.

This authorised professional practice (APP) provides guidance on making ethical decisions where data is being collected, stored, shared or used. It also sets out principles to support police officers, staff and volunteers to integrate ethical considerations into data processing practices.

chief officers who have legal responsibility for how their organisation collects, stores, shares or uses data * senior leaders, such as chief data officers (CDO) and data protection officers (DPO) * data analysts and specialists * project leads tasked with the responsibility for collecting, storing, analysing, sharing or using data in a particular project or task * all police officers, staff and volunteers who collect, store, analyse, share or use data as part of their role * designated contract managers, contractors and staff employed by suppliers who collect, analyse, share or use data on behalf of forces

This APP is also relevant to non-Home Office police forces and organisations, including:

police and crime commissioners * the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) * the Police Digital Service (PDS) * the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) * His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) * the Biometrics and Surveillance Camera Commissioner (BSCC) * the Home Office

Officers and staff should also take guidance provided in the following documents into account when applying the guidance set out in this APP:

Officers and staff should ensure that, where necessary, a data protection impact assessment (DPIA) is completed. Please refer to the ICO guidance on DPIAs(opens an external website in the same tab) .

Artificial intelligence (AI) refers to technologies with the ability to perform intellectual processes that would otherwise require human intelligence, such as visual perception, speech recognition and language translation. * Data controllers are individuals who hold the legal responsibility for the way in which data is gathered, processed, stored and deleted under the Data Protection Act 2018(opens an external website in the same tab) . Chief constables are the legal controllers of police data. * Human-in-the-loop is the process of combining machine and human intelligence to inform decision making. * Process refers to the collecting, storing, sharing or use of data.

The principles in this document comply with the Human Rights Act 1998(opens an external website in the same tab) , the Data Protection Act 2018(opens an external website in the same tab) and the Equality Act 2010(opens an external website in the same tab) .

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Reproduced from the College of Policing Authorised Professional Practice under the Open Government Licence v3.0, as captured on 2026-06-27. APP is amended over time — check the source link below for the current version. This is a reference, not operational authorisation.

APP is the authoritative source for UK policing practice and is updated over time. For the current, official version — including any operational detail not reproduced here — go direct.

Read the full APP guidance

Source: College of Policing — Authorised Professional Practice · Crown copyright, licensed under Open Government Licence v3.0. Summary fetched 2026-06-27.