FOI 2-2025 / Jan 2025 / Dog theft
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST REFERENCE NO: 2-2025
I write in connection with your request for information which was received on 1st January 2025 as follows:
- How, it at all, has the process for recording stolen dogs (under the Theft Act) to abducted dogs (under the Pet Abduction Act) changed in 2024?
- What were the total number of dog theft crimes in 2024 (monthly breakdown if possible)?
- What was the outcome (charge/summons, community resolution, active investigation, evidential difficulties, no suspect identified) for each dog theft crime in 2024?
- How many dogs were listed with each dog theft crime in 2024?
- If this question doesn't take us beyond the time required for free FOI feedback, can details about stolen dog breed, gender, age, and location of theft (walk, home, garden, outside shop, from car etc) also be provided for 2024 please?
- If this question doesn't take us beyond the time required for free FOI feedback, can postcode of recorded crime and CRN be included?
Please find the Warwickshire Police response set out below.
Q1 response: Prior to the offence of '049-03 - Abduction of pet dog/cat' coming into being in August 2024, all offences of theft of dog would be recorded as either ‘theft other’, ‘robbery/theft from person’ or ‘burglary’.
Q2 to Q6 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, as stated in the response to Q1, 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 for the entire period, it would be necessary to manually review each and every theft, burglary and robbery offence (recorded up to the time when the new offence under Home Office Code 049/03 - ‘Abduction of pet dog/cat’ came into being). 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 at Q2 to Q6 to specifically ask for information in relation to offences under Home Office Code 049/03 - ‘Abduction of pet dog/cat’, 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