Every police officer I have ever dealt with on either a personal or professional level has been a model of courtesy and good judgment. I’ve met old school cynical coppers who swore like the proverbial sailor and clean-cut modern police officers who probably put their pronouns on their LinkedIn bios, which I have no doubt that they have.

I didn’t write this session to demonise the boys and girls in blue, but requests from the police have been a common and routine challenge since I began my long and undistinguished data protection career. Sometimes they’re vague, sometimes they’re cagey and sometimes – SPOILER ALERT – they’re not actually coppers but an inept private eye called Darren, the less said about which the better. It’s relatively easy for an intelligently targeted request for personal data, asked for in connection with a live enquiry, to be answered positively. But you need to be careful and sensible, and Darren is still at large. On this practical and entertaining session, I will fill you in on what to do when the fuzz come knocking.