Data Protection and the Police
Chris Pounder · Journal of Law and Society · 1983
In 1981 the police carried out thirty million checks on the Police National Computer (PNC)[1] made up of approximately twenty-two million vehicle checks and eight million name checks.[2] Every access to the PNC with a vehicle check provides the name and address of the registered keeper as well as a physical description of the car. Given the name, the police officer can call upon further information from the PNC's Wanted or Missing Persons Index or from the Criminal Records Index. Alternatively the officer could check the vehicle against the Stolen and Suspect Vehicle Index to see whether and why the vehicle could be of interest to the police. The vast majority of PNC checks are carried out on people who have committed no crime.