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Planned System Maintenance - Limited Service

Sunderland City Council will be carrying out planned system maintenance from 12 noon on Friday 5th June until 7am on Tuesday 9th June. During this period, we will only be able to respond to urgent enquiries. If your enquiry is not urgent, please contact us before or after these times when full services will be available. We apologise for any inconvenience caused and thank you for your understanding.

Community Safety Identification Appeals

Sunderland City Council is committed to keeping our neighbourhoods safe, clean and welcoming. Our Community Safety Teams investigate antisocial behaviour and environmental offences such as littering, dog fouling and breaches of Public Space Protection Orders.

In the vast majority of cases, individuals cooperate with authorised officers and provide their details when lawfully required. On rare occasions, a person refuses to do so. Where an offence has been witnessed and all other lawful options have been exhausted, the council may ask the public for assistance in identifying the individual involved.

This page explains how and why that may occur.

Why might an image be published?

Images are only published where it is necessary, proportionate and lawful to do so in order to support a formal investigation.

This will only occur where:

  • An offence has been witnessed or clearly recorded
  • The individual has refused to provide their name and address when lawfully required
  • Reasonable alternative methods of identification have been tried and failed
  • Identification is the only remaining step required to progress enforcement action
  • Publication is assessed as being in the public interest

Images are never published as a punishment, deterrent or to embarrass anyone. They are used solely to enable lawful identification where this cannot otherwise be achieved.

Every case is individually authorised and recorded.

What types of offences may be involved?

Identification appeals may relate to offences such as:

  • Littering and other environmental offences
  • Dog fouling
  • Breaches of Public Space Protection Orders
  • Antisocial behaviour or disorder

Each case is assessed on its own merits and only where enforcement action would be lawful and appropriate.

What images are used?

Images may come from:

  • Council body-worn video
  • Council CCTV systems
  • Lawfully obtained third-party footage (such as shop CCTV, dash-cam or doorbell footage), where this forms part of a live investigation

Where third-party footage is used, no information identifying the owner or location of the camera will be published.

Only clear images suitable for identification will be used.

Images of children will never be published.

What checks are carried out before publication?

Before any image is released, the council will:

  • Confirm there is sufficient evidence that an offence has occurred
  • Ensure that enforcement action would be lawful and in the public interest
  • Check whether the individual is known to police or safeguarding services
  • Consider whether the person may be vulnerable
  • Confirm that publication is necessary and proportionate

Images will not be published where doing so would be inappropriate, excessive or unfair.

All decisions are documented and auditable.

How can the public provide information?

If you recognise someone shown in an appeal, you will be asked to contact Customer Enabling Services by telephone. You may provide information anonymously if you wish.

All information is treated as intelligence and verified before any action is taken.

What happens if someone is identified?

Once an individual is identified:

  • The image will be removed from public platforms without delay
  • It will not remain online longer than is necessary
  • Any further action will only be taken where officers are satisfied that the person identified is the person shown

How long are images kept online?

Images are only published for as long as required to achieve identification. Once that purpose is met, they are removed in line with council policy and data-protection requirements.

Misuse of images

All published appeals include a notice that the images are released under Sunderland City Council's statutory enforcement powers.

Unauthorised or unlawful reuse of these images may constitute a criminal offence.

Lawful basis for publication

Images are processed and published under the council's statutory enforcement powers, including:

  • Littering and other environmental offences
  • Dog fouling
  • Breaches of Public Space Protection Orders
  • Antisocial behaviour or disorder

Each case is assessed on its own merits and only where enforcement action would be lawful and appropriate.

Processing is carried out in accordance with the UK General Data Protection Regulation and the Data Protection Act 2018, including Part 3 (law-enforcement processing) where applicable.

Your data protection rights

Under data-protection law, you have the right to:

  • Request access to personal data held about you
  • Request correction of inaccurate data
  • Request restriction of processing in certain circumstances
  • Object to processing in certain circumstances
  • Make a complaint to the council or the Information Commissioner's Office

These rights are not absolute and may be limited where data is processed for the prevention and detection of crime or the exercise of statutory enforcement powers.

If you believe an image has been published incorrectly, you may contact the council's Data Protection Officer or Customer Enabling Services.

Contact us

If you have information relating to an appeal, or any questions about this process, please contact our Customer Enabling Services by calling 0191 520 5550.