FOI 573-2024 / June 2024 / Assaults
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST REFERENCE NO: 573-2024
I write in connection with your request for information which was received on 17th June 2024 as follows:
Could you please supply me with the following information concerning reports of sexual assault or physical assault involving members of the security industry, such as bouncers, doormen or any other relevant security related job title. Below are my specific questions:
- How many crimes have been reported in the past five calendar years that were either sexual or physical in nature where the perpetrator had the job title of Security Guard, Door Staff, Bouncer or similar vocation?
- How many reports of assault or sexual assault have been reported in the past five calendar years where the victims had the job title of Security Guard, Door Staff, Bouncer or similar vocation?
Please find the Warwickshire Police response set out below.
Response: Please be advised that the requested information is not available in a readily retrievable format. Although there is an occupation field within the Crime Recording System, this is a drop-down field with limited choice, is not mandatory and is often not completed. Further, if the field has been completed it is not linked to an individual crime, but to a person, and can be added to at any time. Previous information is kept on the person record when new occupation details are added. Therefore, a search for individuals with a specific occupation type would return all records in relation to that individual, regardless of when the occupation was recorded or whether it had subsequently changed. Even if relevant occupations were returned in any given search, it would be necessary to determine, in each case, whether the occupation was relevant to the specific crime in question and, in the event that an individual had been both a victim and a suspect of crime at different times, it would be necessary to determine which role was relevant to an occupation at the time of the offence relevant to this request. For these reasons, the occupation field is not a reliable search option. In order to determine whether reference is made to a crime where the victim or suspect is shown as having any of the listed occupations within your request, it would be necessary to individually review the wider investigation documentation for each and every crime falling under the umbrella of ‘assault’ and every crime of sexual assault, recorded during the stated period. This would equate to in excess of 50,000 records and would clearly involve an inordinate amount of work which would excessively 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 (£450) of work on one request.
I can advise that, in order to offer assistance, the analyst did conduct a search for crimes involving ‘physical assault’ using the Home Office Codes 5D, 8N, 8P, 8S, 8T, 104, 105A and 105B and Sexual Assault using Home Office Codes 17A, 17B, 20A and 20B, where the suspect or victim is shown to have one of the following occupations recorded:
- Doorman
- Security Employee
- Security Guard
- Bar Steward
This search produced 658 records; however, even if we were to limit the search to these records where the occupation field has been completed (albeit that the field is not mandatory and information could not be considered accurate), for the reasons set out above it would still be necessary to individually examine each and every one to determine whether the occupation is relevant to an individual being a victim or suspect at the time of the crime and relevant to a crime recorded during the stated period. It is estimated that such searches would take a minimum of 4 minutes per record which would equate to in excess of 44 hours of work.
In accordance with section 12(1) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, this letter acts as a Refusal Notice for this part of the request.
Under Section 16 of the Act, I have a duty to provide advice and assistance; however, given the amount of work involved, I am unable to suggest a way that you could reasonably pare down your request into one which could be handled within the time allowed.
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