FOI-1037-2025 / Oct 2025 / Crimes near EV charging stations
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST REFERENCE NO: 1037-2025
I write in connection with your request for information which was received on 16th October 2025 as follows:
I’m submitting a Freedom of Information request as part of a data project examining public safety around electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure across the UK.
Please could you provide the following information for your force area, covering the period 1st January 2020 to 30th September 2025 (or most recent available):
- The number of reported crimes that took place:
- At public EV charging stations
- Or within 50 metres of a public EV charging station
- Please break this down by:
- Year
- Crime type
- Location (postcode or nearest street)
- If recorded, please also include:
- Whether CCTV footage was available
- Whether the area was lit at the time (if noted)
If this request exceeds the cost limit, please prioritise providing:
- A total yearly crime count near EV charging stations
- The top 10 most affected locations
Please find the Warwickshire Police response set out below.
Response: Please be advised that the requested is not available in a readily retrievable format. There is no specific identifier for ‘EV charging stations’, and no flag or marker to easily identify where this is the location of an offence. 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. In order to provide a response to your request it would be necessary to review each and every offence recorded during the stated period which would equate to tens of thousands of records. Therefore, as you will appreciate, such searches would take an inordinate amount of time and would greatly 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 this 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 which 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.
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