FOI 456-2024 / Apr 2024 / Shoplifting
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST REFERENCE NO: FOI-456-2024
I write in connection with your request for information which was received on 26th April 2024, and clarification received on 29th April 2024, as follows:
1) How many incidents of shoplifting were reported to your force in the following calendar years: 2023, 2022 and 2021.
2) How many of those reports resulted in an officer attending the scene in the following calendar years: 2023, 2022 and 2021.
On 29th April 2024 we requested the following clarification:
Please can you advise whether the information you seek relates to incidents disposed as shoplifting, reported (i.e. incident recorded on the Command & Control System) or offences subsequently recorded on the Crime Recording System of shoplifting (Home Office Crime Code 046/00 - Theft from Shops and Stalls).
Please note that if this is the latter, it is not possible to cross refer the offences retrieved for Q1 with officer attendance. This would require a manual trawl against each crime to determine the incident reference and then a review of the original call/incident log. Due to the number of shoplifting crimes recorded per year, this would take an inordinate amount of time and would undoubtedly exceed the amount to which we are legally required to respond, i.e., the cost of locating and retrieving the information exceeds the ‘appropriate level’, as stated in the Freedom of Information (Fees and Appropriate Limit) Regulations 2004.
Therefore, please advise whether you wish to proceed with your request for incidents recorded in 2023, 2022 and 2021.
On 29th April 2024 you provided the following:
Many thanks for this. Yes, I would please like to proceed with my request for incidents recorded in 2023, 2022 and 2021.
Please accept my sincere apologies for the delay in providing the response to your request and for any inconvenience that this may have caused you. Please find the Warwickshire Police response set out below.
Q1 response: Searches have been conducted for all incidents reported via the Command & Control System with disposal code ‘Shoplifting’, reported between 1st January 2021 and 31st December 2023. Results were filtered to remove incidents with a blank response time (no deployment in relation to the report). The breakdown based on these searches is set out below; however, please see the further information set out later in the response*.
|
|
2021 |
2022 |
2023 |
Grand Total |
|
Number of incidents with Disposal Description 'Shoplifting' |
1797 |
733 |
630 |
3160 |
|
Number of Attended Shoplifting Incidents |
285 |
250 |
271 |
806 |
Please note that it is not currently possible to accurately differentiate between whether an incident was attended by an officer or PSCO etc. The data is based on incidents showing as attended only.
You will note a fall in recorded incidents between the 2021 figures and those of 2022 and 2023. We have consulted with the business area in this respect and they have advised that the decline is possibly reflective of change in working practices. The primary role of the Command & Control System is as a deployment tool and, in the event that a call handler determines, via the THRIVE model, that there is no requirement for deployment to an incident of shoplifting, then it is not necessary for an incident log to be created, as long as confirmed reports of crime are immediately recorded onto the Crime Recording System. Working practices were adjusted to remove recording on the Command & Control System in these circumstances. If any incident type is identified by the call handlers as being suitable for telephone investigation the call will be passed to them (other than where an incident is reported out of hours, in which case a log will be created on the Command & Control System and then deferred for transfer to the telephone investigator, during opening hours, for them to manage).
A further change was the introduction and continued uptake of online reporting through the Single Online Home portal. Similarly to the above, these reports are recorded directly onto the Crime Recording System when there is no requirement for deployment.
For these reasons the number of incidents logged on the Command & Control System for Shoplifting do not correlate with the number of crimes recorded. For completeness, I have set out below the total number of Shoplifting crimes recorded per year:
|
Offence Title |
2021 |
2022 |
2023 |
Grand Total |
|
SHOPLIFTING (Home Office Code 46) |
2107 |
2259 |
2809 |
7175 |
*Where a report is made and the THRIVE model indicates that deployment is not appropriate at the time of reporting, as stated above, such reports will be recorded directly onto the Crime Recording System and not the Command & Control System. However, although deployment was not considered appropriate at the time of reporting, this does not mean that an officer or PCSO has not attended or made a visit at some point/s as part of the ongoing investigation. As stated in our initial request for clarification, in order to determine the number of crimes where attendance has been made at some point, would require a manual review of each and every crime.
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