No Freedom, No Information

Freedom of Information requests can embarrass police officers.

In the Hillsborough scandal, one of the main architects of the police smear campaign was Norman Bettison. When last year's Hillsborough Independent Panel report came out he did not answer calls. In later written evidence, given under caution, Bettison said he was in a place with no signal. An FOI request showed his work phone was in use all day, making 14 calls and 15 texts.

The 'outside' overseer for the current Hillsborough investigation is another senior police officer, Jon Stoddart, the recently retired chief constable of Durham. 

A new body, the National Crime Agency (NCA), came into being today. Stoddart has been seconded to the NCA. The NCA is exempt from the Freedom of Information Act. Hmmm.