There is a storm in a teacup brewing in Blighty after coppers admitted to storing data  of millions people who reported emergency calls.

The Press Association asked for details of the data under  Freedom of Information laws. It showed that police forces in England and Wales have kept data about people who call 999 or non-emergency numbers to report their concerns or pass on information.

The study discovered that West Midlands Police has more than a million records on people who have reported offences over the past 12 years. Other forces, including Lancashire, Cleveland, Avon and Somerset, Gloucestershire, West Mercia and North Wales, hold more than 150,000 each.

Coppers apparently want to keep the data so it can be used against people as part of any future police investigation.  But you would think that after 12 years without an arrest being made that data is really just being stored in case someone does something later.