FOI 1042-2023 / Nov 2023 / Sextortion
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST REFERENCE NO: FOI-1042-2023
I write in connection with your request for information which was received on 13th November 2023 as follows:
- Can you provide me with the number of sextortion cases reported to Warwickshire Police - broken down by calendar year for the past five years - so 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023.
- Of those reports, if possible please could you provide me with the number which have led to further action - arrest, charge, conviction, ongoing, etc.
Please find the Warwickshire Police response set out below.
Response: Please be advised that the requested information is not centrally recorded and is therefore not held in a readily retrievable format. Searches were conducted for all offences, recorded during the period 1st January 2019 to the date of your request, where the primary offence is 35 ‘Blackmail’ or the primary and included offence is 008/71 ‘Disclose or threats to disclose private sexual photographs/film with intent to cause distress’ or 088/10 ‘Voyeurism’. This search produced a total of 1,487 records and, in order to determine the number that relate to ‘sextortion’, it would be necessary to review each and every offence on an individual basis. At a minimum of 2 minutes per record this equates to in excess of 49 hours of work. However, with regard to those records where it is determined that ‘sextortion’ is relevant, the time would be estimated at a further 3 minutes per record to determine whether an individual had been arrested. This is due to the Crime Recording System and the Custody System being separate systems and it would therefore be necessary to cross reference each investigation with the custody system. Therefore, for these reasons, such searches would exceed the fees limit (£450) as stated in the Freedom of Information (Fees and Appropriate Limit) Regulations 2004.
In accordance with s12(1) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, this letter acts as a Refusal Notice in relation to this request.
In accordance with Section 16 of the Act I have a duty to provide advice and in relation to refining your request; however, due to the amount of records which would need to be examined, I am unable to suggest a way to pare down your request into one which could be managed within the fees limit unless you were to reduce the time period required to, say, one year.
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