FOI 918-2025 / Sep 2025 / Car keying incidents
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST REFERENCE NO: 918-2025
I write in connection with your request for information which was received on 9th September 2025 as follows:
Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, I would like to request data regarding incidents of criminal damage involving vehicles being “keyed” (scratched using a key or similar sharp object) within your area.
Could you please provide the following data for the period 01/07/2024 – 01/07/2025:
- The total number of reported incidents of cars being keyed.
- The make and model of the cars involved in each incident.
- The colour of the cars involved in each incident.
If your systems do not record incidents of cars being specifically ‘keyed’ as a category, or if it is not possible to provide this information within the cost limits, please provide available data relating to criminal damage, vandalism or tampering instead.
Please find the Warwickshire Police response set out below.
Response: Please be advised that the information requested is not available in a readily retrievable format. There is no identifier within the Crime Recording System to determine where a vehicle has been ‘keyed’. 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 ensure that all relevant information is located it would be necessary to individually examine the wider investigation papers associated with all offences of ‘Interfering with a Motor Vehicle’ and ‘Criminal Damage to a Vehicle’ recorded during the period 1st July 2024 and 30th June 2025 (inclusive). I can advise that there were 1920 such offences recorded during the stated period, and an estimate of time involved is set out below:
1920 offences @ 5 minutes each = 9600 minutes / 60 = 160 hours
Therefore, such searches would greatly exceed the cost threshold of £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 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 in relation to refining your request; however, due to the volume of records involved, I am unable to suggest a way to do so which would enable the searches to be carried out 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