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FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST REFERENCE NO: 12693
I write in connection with your request for information which was received on 3rd October 2019. Please find below the response to your request:
I am looking for a record of calls made to this police force in the last 5 years.
I would like the amount of calls made that are directly in relation to nightmares, ghosts, poltergeists, aliens, supernatural beings, monsters, bad dreams, vampires, or spirits.
Could I have info on any call in relation to the above topics, the area the call was made, when it was made, and any details taken about that call.
Reply:-
I apologise for the delay in responding to your request under the Freedom of Information Act. I can confirm that your request has now been processed and my response is below.
Section 12(1) of the Freedom of Information Act states that a public authority is not obliged to comply with a request for information if the authority estimates that the cost of complying with the request would exceed the “appropriate limit”. For Police forces in the UK, the "appropriate limit" is considered to be up to 18 hours of work on one request. This information is given in the Freedom of Information (Fees and Appropriate Limit) Regulations 2004.
In order to provide you with the detailed information you have requested it would require 540 searches (one for each word ‘type', 1 month at a time, for 5 years). Each incident found would then have to be individually reviewed to see if it was a 'false' positive.
Average review time is 3 mins per incident. It is estimated that an average of 8 incidents would need to be reviewed for each month which gives an average review time for each search 24 minutes.
540 searches @ 24 minutes each = 216 hours
In regard to Section 12(1) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, please treat this as the refusal notice I am required to provide to you.
In accordance with Section 16 of the Act I have a duty to provide advice and assistance in relation to your request, however due to the volume of records that would need to be reviewed I have been unable to identify information that could be supplied within the fees limit