FOI 129-2025 / Jan 2025 / Dog thefts
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST REFERENCE NO: 129-2025
I write in connection with your request for information which was received on 28th January 2025 as follows:
I am writing to you under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 to request the following information.
Specifically, I would like to request to know:
How many dogs were reported to you as stolen in 2024?
Of those dogs stolen, how many dogs were then returned to their owners in 2024?
What were the top three breeds stolen in 2024?
Please see the Warwickshire Police response set out below.
Response: Please be advised that the requested information for the entire period of 2024 is not centrally recorded and is therefore not held in a readily retrievable format. Prior to August 2024, 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. On 24th August 2024, the specific Home Office offence 049/03 - ‘Abduction of pet dog/cat’ came into force, however, in order to determine the information requested for the period from 1st January to 23rd August 2024, it would be necessary to manually review each and every theft, burglary and robbery offence. As you will appreciate, this would 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 can advise that should you wish to revise your request to specifically ask for information in relation to offences under Home Office Code 049/03 - ‘Abduction of pet dog/cat’ recorded for the period 24th August 2024 to 31st December 2024, this may be possible within the fees limit. However, please note that any information retrieved would be subject to the usual disclosure considerations.
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