# Why is it not a breach of confidentiality to have A&Es/ERs looking out for certain injuries?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-not-a-breach-of-confidentiality-to-have-a-es-ers-looking-out-for-certain-injuries/640424>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [November 8, 2012, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-not-a-breach-of-confidentiality-to-have-a-es-ers-looking-out-for-certain-injuries/640424 "2012-11-08T23:55:05Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Simple\_Linctus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Simple\_Linctus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simple_Linctus)\
**Post date:** [November 8, 2012, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-not-a-breach-of-confidentiality-to-have-a-es-ers-looking-out-for-certain-injuries/640424/1 "2012-11-08T23:55:05Z")

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It is my understanding that it’s pretty common for the police, when a suspect gets away with injuries, to ask the local hospital emergency departments to be on the lookout for people with matching injuries.

Why is it not a breach of medical confidentiality for the doctors/nurses to report these people to the police when they come in?

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**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\
**Post date:** [November 8, 2012, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-not-a-breach-of-confidentiality-to-have-a-es-ers-looking-out-for-certain-injuries/640424/2 "2012-11-08T23:58:52Z")

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> [@Simple\_Linctus](#):
>
> Why is it not a breach of medical confidentiality for the doctors/nurses to report these people to the police when they come in?

Well, it is a breach of medical confidentiality.

But I think you really mean “why is it not against the laws that require medical confidentiality”, and the answer to that is that those laws include exceptions for law enforcement.

I did a Google search for “HIPAA law enforcement exceptions” and a bunch of stuff came up. I’m sure the specifics are available if you want to go read through some long and dry legislation.