Police To Be Investigated Over McIntyre Photo

A photograph of comedian Michael McIntyre standing on a London street that was taken by a police helicopter will be investigated over a possible data protection breach.

The image provoked a strong backlash on social media with one person describing it as "dodgy", while another questioned if police sought McIntyre's consent.

The picture was posted on the National Police Air Service (NPAS) Twitter account, with a message saying: "Whilst on tasking in central London this morning we spotted a certain energetic funny man ... Can you guess who?"

It was taken outside the Global Radio offices in Leicester Square at around 8am on Wednesday morning.

A spokesman for the Information Commissioner's Office said the incident would be investigated.

"Police forces like all other organisations must comply with the Data Protection Act," the spokesman said.

"The police especially must ensure that they have legitimate grounds for processing personal data and disclosing images of this nature without a justifiable policing purpose could potentially breach the Data Protection Act."

The tweet has now been removed.

The ground operations director for NPAS, Superintendent Richard Watson, said there would be a discussion with the person who posted the image.

"We are aware of the tweet and, as far as we are aware, it does not breach any data protection legislation," he said.

"We feel however it was inappropriate and it has since been removed."

McIntyre's representative told Sky News there would be no comment from the star, but some people took to Twitter to question the actions of police.

Robin Wilton, using the Twitter handle @futureidentity, tweeted: "Did you seek the individual's consent? Or is this an abuse of your considerable surveillance powers?"

Another, Edward Davie (@EdDavie), added: "You do a great job but this is dodgy. Do you have permission to post pics of these people from a spy cam on Twitter?"

The use of such cameras is governed by a Surveillance Camera Code of Practice and overseen by Surveillance Camera Commissioner Tony Porter.

Mr Porter said he had contacted the Metropolitan Police to discuss what happened and to seek assurances it would not happen again.

"Access to data that is captured by surveillance should be restricted - disclosure should only take place when it is necessary for law enforcement purposes," he said.

"Public disclosure of anyone's image for the purposes of fun is a clear breach of that."

The comedian is currently warming up for his Happy And Glorious UK and Ireland tour.