Armed police officer deployment 916/2025

FOI Reference: 916/2025

Request:

1. On how many occasions have armed police officers been deployed within say 2 miles of Welshpool town centre in the past 5 years?
2. To what locations were they deployed?
3. In connection with what offence were they so deployed?

Response 1:

I can confirm that Dyfed-Powys Police does hold the information requested, the details of which are as follows:

• There was a total of 54 incidents that were responded to by an Armed Firearms Officer (AFO) between September 2020 and August 2025.

Response 2:

I can confirm that Dyfed-Powys Police does hold the information requested, however, we are withholding this information by virtue of the following exemption. Please see the end of the document for an explanation of the applied exemption.

• Section 40(2) – Personal information

Response 3:

I can confirm that Dyfed-Powys Police does hold the information requested, the details of which are as follows:

Please note: Some incidents may have more than one initial threat recorded.  Initial threat refers to the perceived threat when the incident was reported. The below information/data covers the period of September 2020 to August 2025.

• 41 Edged Weapon
• 6 Blunt instrument
• 4 Firearm/Taser (this also includes imitation firearms)
• 4 Glass
• 2 Axe/Machete
• 1 Petrol/Gas/Arson

Explanation of applied exemption:

Section 40(2) – Personal Information

Section 40(2) applies to third party personal data and is exempt from disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 if disclosure, in relation to data subject to law enforcement processing, would breach any of the data protection principles contained within Part 3 - Chapter 2 of the Data Protection Act 2018.

Under Section 34 within Chapter 2 “The Controller in relation to personal data is responsible for and must be able to demonstrate, compliance with” Chapter 2. Such information would not be released under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 unless there is a strong public interest. One of the main differences between the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and the Data Protection Act 2018 is that any information released under FOI is released into the public domain, not just the individuals requesting the information and disclosure under the Act must be made with that in mind. As such, any release that identifies any individuals through releasing their personal data, even third party personal data is exempt.

Personal data is defined under Section 3 of the Data Protection Act 2018 as:

“(2) ‘Personal data’ means any information relating to an identified or identifiable living individuals (subject to subsection (14)(c)).

(3) ‘Identifiable living individuals’ means a living individuals who can be identified, directly or indirectly, in particular by reference to—

(a) An identifier such as a name, an identification number, location data or an online identifier, or

(b) One or more factors specific to the physical, physiological, genetic, mental, economic, cultural or social identity of the individuals.”

All members of the public including those employed by the force have an intrinsic right to privacy and these rights are protected by virtue of the Human Rights Act, the Data Protection Act 2018 and the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK-GDPR) and a public authority must not interfere with that right. Any release of the information subject to the exemption is likely to compromise those rights.

Data Protection Act 2018

Part 3 – Law Enforcement – Chapter 2 Principles Section 35

The first data protection principle:

“(1) The first data protection principle is that the processing of personal data for any of the law enforcement purposes must be lawful and fair.”

UK - General Data Protection Regulation

Article 5 of the UK-GDPR – ‘Principles relating to processing of personal data’ provides:

“1. ‘Personal data’ shall be

(a) Processed lawfully, fairly and in a transparent manner in relation to the data subject (‘lawfulness, fairness and transparency);

(b) Collected for specified, explicit and legitimate purposes and not further processed in a manner that is incompatible with those purposes; further processing for archiving purposes in the public interest…

2. The controller shall be responsible for, and be able to demonstrate compliance with, paragraph 1 (‘accountability’).”

Dyfed-Powys Police would not want to disclose any information that could potentially identify any individuals. In this particular case, to release the information requested in respect of question 2 whereby more granular locational information has been requested would lead to the identification of and constitute the personal information of an identifiable individual. To release such information would be a direct breach of Data Protection legislation and as a consequence I am satisfied that Section 40(2) Personal Information exemption is applicable to the release of the information. The Section 40 exemption is in part qualified and in part absolute, in the present case it would be absolute as to release the information would breach Data Protection legislation and therefore there is no requirement to carry out a public interest test.                                  

(This is a response under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and disclosed on 23/09/2025)