FOI 862-2023 / Sept 2023 / Control room
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST REFERENCE NO: 862-2023
I write in connection with your request for information which was received on 19th September 2023 as follows:
I request a direct non-emergency telephone number and email address for your control room (or, where you have more than one control room, the aforementioned for each such control room).
Please note that I am not seeking your switchboard telephone number and that I do not seek to “jump the queue”, so to speak, but simply to make contact directly with your control room in circumstances where that is required without having to engage with the menu options presented by your switchboard.
Please find the Warwickshire Police response set out below.
Response: Section 1 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, places two duties on public authorities. Unless exemptions apply, the first duty at Section 1(1)(a) is to confirm or deny whether the information specified in a request is held. The second duty at Section 1(1)(b) is to disclose information that has been confirmed as being held.
I can advise that Warwickshire Police does hold the requested information; however, the information is being withheld from disclosure.
When refusing to provide such information, because the information is exempt, Section 17 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 requires Warwickshire Police to provide you the applicant, with a notice which:
(a) States that fact,
(b) Specifies the exemption in question and
(c) States (if that would not otherwise be apparent) why the exemption applies.
The relevant exemption in this case is Section 31(1)(a)(b) – Law Enforcement
Section 31 is a prejudice-based qualified exemption and, as such, there is a requirement to evidence the harm disclosure would cause and to carry out a public interest test.
Section 31 - Evidence of Harm
The Freedom of Information Act provides the public with a general right of access to recorded information held by public authorities. However, information disclosed under this Act is effectively released into the public domain, or to ‘the world’, and not only to the person making the request.
The triage system allows for a swift assessment of the caller needs and direction of the call to the most appropriate route for the services needed. Disclosing the requested information into the public domain will mean calls and emails reach the control room without having been triaged. As a result, non-emergency and nuisance calls and emails could be answered ahead of emergency calls and there will be a delay in deploying assistance where it is most needed. This delay could place individuals at significant risk of harm.
Public Interest Considerations for S31(1)(a)(b) Law Enforcement
Section 31 - Factors favouring Disclosure
Providing the requested information would allow the public to get through to a call handler or control room without going through the triage system and would provide another way for the public to contact Warwickshire Police.
Section 31 - Factors favouring Non-Disclosure
Effective law enforcement is the core function of the police service and is of paramount importance to Warwickshire Police and this must be considered in respect of every release.
If the requested information is disclosed, and the public were able to contact the police control room via an indirect route that is not triaged, call handlers would be answering non-priority calls over emergency graded calls, which could result in individuals, who require immediate assistance, having to wait longer for their call to be answered and for help to be deployed, which could ultimately place people’s lives at risk. In addition, if the call was reporting an offence in progress, this delay could result in offenders having time to leave the scene and evade capture, which would inhibit the apprehension and prosecution of offenders. This would directly impact on Warwickshire Police carrying out its core function of law enforcement and protecting people from harm.
Furthermore, individuals with malicious intent could use the information to bombard phone lines and email accounts with nuisance calls and spam emails, further undermining operational policing capabilities.
Balancing Test
As always, the Freedom of Information Act has a presumption in favour of disclosure, unless, when balancing the competing public interest factors, the prejudice to the community outweighs the benefits. In this case, the strongest argument for disclosure is to allow the public to have additional and quicker ways to contact the force. However, this needs to be weighed against the strongest argument for non-disclosure, which in this case is a negative impact on law enforcement and operational policing capabilities due to the control room getting calls for service which have not been triaged and which could result in a delay in assistance being deployed in a timely manner.
Therefore, having considered the arguments for and against disclosure, I have concluded that the argument in favour of maintaining the exemption is stronger and outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information.
In accordance with Section 17 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, this acts as a refusal notice with regard to this request.
I can advise that you can contact the force via calling 101 for non-emergency enquiries, or 999 in an emergency, or via the force website at the link below:
Contact us | Warwickshire Police
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