FOI 830-2024 / Sep 2024 / Car meets
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST REFERENCE NO: 830-2024
I write in connection with your request for information which was received on 18th September 2024 as follows:
Split by calendar year from 1 January 2022 to date, please provide the following.
Q1. Number of reports of unauthorised car meets
Q2. Number of times officers have attended unauthorised car meets
Q3. Number of arrests made at unauthorised car meets
Q4. In addition, please can you advise if you have any Section 35 dispersal orders in place to tackle unauthorised car meets? If so how many and when were they first authorised?
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.
Response: Please be advised that the requested information is not held in a readily retrievable format. There is no specific incident type for ‘car meets’ and no marker or identifier within the Command and Control System to locate records where a car meet is relevant. Keyword searches are not carried out routinely as they will only bring back records where any chosen keyword(s) is present within the free text of the log of an incident. Therefore, in the event that the circumstances are relevant, but where the exact keyword(s) has not been used to describe the situation, then these would not be picked up within a search. Therefore, it would be necessary to review all relevant incident types relating to Road and ASB reports on an individual basis. Therefore, for the reasons set out above, the work involved in providing a response you your request would be above the amount to which we are legally required to respond ie, the work involved in locating, retrieving and recording the information requested for exceeds the cost threshold (£450), which equates to 18 hours work at a standard rate of £25 per hour, as stated in the Freedom of Information (Fees and Appropriate Limit) Regulations 2004.
In accordance with the Freedom of Information Act 2000, this letter acts as a Refusal Notice for this part of the request and, if one part of a request exceeds the fees limit, then S12 of the Act applies to the whole request.
In accordance with Section 16 of the Act, I have a duty to provide advice and assistance in suggesting ways to revise your request where possible. Although the limitations of a keyword search have been set out above, should you wish to resubmit a request asking for the specific term ‘car meet’ to be searched within the free text log of incidents, during the stated period, then this could be undertaken; however, it must be understood that this would not necessarily denote an ‘unauthorised’ car meet, as this may not be stated within the text, and would not necessarily provide an accurate response for the reasons already stated.
Outside of the Act and as a gesture of goodwill, with regard to Q4 where you asked if we have “any Section 35 dispersal orders in place to tackle unauthorised car meets? If so how many and when were they first authorised?”, please note that these orders can only last for a maximum of 48 hours; however the business areas advise that none were in place as at the point that they checked.
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