FOI 661-2023 / July 2023 / Car thefts
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST REFERENCE NO: FOI-661-2023
I write in connection with your request for information which was received on 11th July 2023 as follows:
Please could you provide me with the following information, in Excel or similar spreadsheet form if possible:
- a) The number of car theft incidents reported to your force between 1 January 2023 and 30 June 2023;
- b) The number of those incidents where a police officer arrived at the scene of the incident.
Response: I must advise that the requested information is not centrally recorded and is therefore not held in a readily retrievable format. Firstly, there is no identifier within the crime recording system to determine whether a theft is in relation to a car, rather than any other vehicle, and in order to determine such information it would be necessary to review each and every theft of vehicle offence on an individual basis. Second, there is no way of ascertaining whether an officer attended the scene of the crime without reviewing each individual crime. During the period from 1st January 2023 and 30th June 2023 there are 640 crimes which would need to be reviewed.
A calculation of the time involved is set out below:
640 records @ 4 minutes per record = 43 hours
This would involve a disproportionate amount of effort which would take us over the fees limit (£450) as stated in the Freedom of Information (Fees and Appropriate Limit) Regulations 2004.
In accordance with Section 12(1) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, please treat this letter as the Refusal Notice I am required to provide to you in respect of your request.
In accordance with Section 16 of the Act I have a duty to provide advice and assistance. However due to the volume of records that would need to be examined I am unable to suggest a way to pare down your request into one that could be managed within the fees limit, unless you were to refine your request to a much lesser time period of, say, one or two months.
Every effort has been made to ensure that the information provided is as accurate as possible.
Your attention is drawn to the below which details your right of complaint.
Should you have any further enquiries concerning this matter, please write or email the Freedom of Information Unit quoting the reference number above.
Yours sincerely
Freedom of Information Officer
Freedom of Information Unit
Warwickshire Police
PO Box 4
Leek Wootton
Warwickshire
CV35 7QB