DISCUSSIONS have taken place to use Wi-Fi data to help track criminals in Barrow.

Barrow BID has proposed plans to set up town Wi-Fi for people in the town centre.

If any serious crime or disorder occurred, the location of Wi-Fi users could then be discovered using location data.

According to Barrow BID members, this would then place individuals at the scenes of crime and help reduce reports of anti-social behaviour in the town centre.

The idea was put forward to Inspector Gareth Jesson from Barrow Local Focus Policing team.

He said police could access Wi-Fi in cases of serious crime or disorder but only via a data protection request.

He said: "The intention is to have a town centre Wi-Fi set up by the BID and the question was posed.

"The answer would be that the operator of the Wi-Fi would have knowledge of which phones were logged in to that location at particular times.

"Police would be able to access this data in cases of serious crime or disorder via a data protection request.

"But can police track people at any given moment via Wi-Fi data? The answer is an emphatic no."

Tracking the public using Wi-Fi data has drawn criticism from privacy advocates in the past.

Wi-Fi is currently used in a number of airports to track the location of passengers.

London’s City Airport won £800,000 of funding in 2016 to develop the tracking technology as part of its Internet of Things.

The airport is using the technology to monitor servicing equipment as well as triangulate the location of passengers in the terminal.

Calls for Wi-Fi tracking have been made in a bid to stamp down on anti-social behaviour following a rise in town centre criminality.

A poll undertaken by Barrow BID and Cumbria police last year revealed that more than 90 per cent of people believe Barrow town centre has an anti-social behaviour problems.

Residents were asked if they thought Barrow town centre has an anti-social behaviour problem, of the 314 who responded, 91 per cent of them voted yes.