FOI 943-2025 / Sep 2025 / E-bike crimes
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST REFERENCE NO: 943-2025
I write in connection with your request for information which was received on 18th September 2025 as follows:
I would like to request the following data:
Q1. The number of recorded crimes involving electric bicycles (e-bikes) for each year from 2019 to the most recent available year.
Q2. A breakdown of the types of crimes in which e-bikes were involved (e.g. theft, robbery, assault, drug offences, etc.).
Q3. If available, a breakdown of this data by town or local policing area within your jurisdiction.
Q4. Any internal assessments or reports regarding the rise or trend in e-bike-related crimes over this period.
Please find the Warwickshire Police response set out below.
Response: Please be advised that the requested information is not centrally recorded and is therefore not held in a readily retrievable format. There is no specific identifier for ‘e-bike’ within the Crime Recording System, and no flag or marker to easily identify when an e-bike has been involved in a crime. 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 an accurate response to your request it would be necessary to review the wider investigation papers in relation to each and every crime recorded during the stated period. Given the number of offences recorded annually by the force, this would take an inordinate amount of time and would undoubtedly 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.
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