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FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST REFERENCE NO: 1097-2024
I write in connection with your request for information which was received on 16th December 2024 as follows:
Response: Please be advised that the requested information is not centrally recorded and is therefore not held in a readily retrievable format. During 2023 there was no offence specific to dog theft, and no way of easily identifying where this had taken place, and such circumstances would form part of ‘Theft’, ‘Burglary and ‘Robbery’ offences. Keyword searches are not carried out routinely as they are not reliable, they will only bring back records where the chosen keyword(s) is present within the MO Description / Incident Summary of an investigation, these are limited free text fields and do not contain all information in relation to an investigation. Therefore, in order to determine the information requested, it would be necessary to manually review each and every theft, burglary and robbery offence, recorded in 2023, on an individual basis. As you will appreciate, this will take an inordinate amount of time and searches would 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. For Police forces in the UK, the ‘appropriate limit’ is up to 18 hours of work on one request.
In accordance with Section 12(1) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, this letter acts as a Refusal Notice for 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 individually reviewed, I am unable to suggest a way to reduce your request into one which could be managed within the fees limit.
However, I have included below a link to a similar request in relation to dog theft in 2023, which was undertaken by way of a keyword search which you may find of assistance.
FOI 33-2024 / Jan 2024 / Dog thefts | Warwickshire Police
I can also advise that a new specific offence under Home Office Code 049/03 - ‘Abduction of pet dog/cat’ came into being in August 2024. Therefore, information of the type requested will be more readily identifiable in the future.
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