Anti-Social Behaviour 49/23

FOI Reference: 49/2023

 

Request:

 

• How many incidents of anti-social behaviour have been reported to your force in the past four calendar years: 2022, 2021, 2020 and 2019.

 

• Please can you also provide a breakdown of how many of these reports led to a police officer visiting the scene of the incident.

 

Response:

 

Section 1 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 places two duties on public authorities. Unless exemptions apply, the first duty at Section 1(1) (a) is to confirm or deny whether the information specified in a request is held. The second duty at Section 1(1) (b) is to disclose information that has been confirmed as being held.

 

Where exemptions are relied upon Section 17 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 requires Dyfed Powys Police, when refusing to provide such information (because the information is exempt) to provide you the applicant with a notice which:   (a) states that fact, (b) specifies the exemption in question and (c) states (if that would not otherwise be apparent) why the exemption applies.

 

I can confirm that Dyfed-Powys Police does hold the information you have requested. However we are withholding the whole of the requested information since we consider that the Section 12(1) exemption the Cost of Compliance exceeds the Appropriate Limit applies to it.

 

Section 12 (1) – The cost of compliance exceeds the Appropriate Limit

 

Section 12(1) states: “…Section 1 (1) does not oblige a public authority to comply with a request for information if the authority estimates that the cost of complying with the request would exceed the appropriate limit.”

 

The cost of providing you with the information requested in respect of your request is above 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. It is estimated that it would exceed 18 hours (i.e. minimum of 5,207 hours) to comply with this part of your request. The regulations can be located @ www.legislation.hmso.gov.uk/si/si2004/20043244.htm

 

The Freedom of Information department has been advised that the information in respect of question 2 of your request is not held in an easily retrievable format. In light of this and in order to accurately obtain the information relative to request for the time frame stipulated would involve Dyfed Powys Police accessing and all incidents under the category of ASB to establish accurately if a police officer visited the scene. It has been established that there are a total of 31,242  incident records that cover the period of your request.  It has also been established that it would take a minimum of 10 minutes to review and obtain the information for a single incident record in respect of your request (as outlined above).  The process outlined results in the below time estimate.

 

2019 = 7,124 records@ a minimum of 10 minutes per record = 1,187.33 hours

2020 = 12,946 records@ a minimum of 10 minutes per record = 2,157.67 hours

2021 = 6,075 records@ a minimum of 10 minutes per record = 1,012.50 hours

2022 = 5,097 records@ a minimum of 10 minutes per record = 849.50 hours

 

Time estimate to complete task = 5,207 hours

 

Please note: A response to question 1 and an estimate of  question 2 of the request has been outlined at the end of this document and has been provided as a gesture of goodwill and outside of the FOI Act.

 

In accordance therefore with the Freedom of Information Act 2000, this letter acts as a Refusal Notice for the Whole of this request under Section 17(5) A public authority which, in relation to any request for information, is relying on a claim that section 12 or section 14 applies must, within the time for complying with section 1(1), give the applicant a notice stating that fact. You may wish to refine and resubmit your request so that it reduces the time shown above to fall within the 18 hours, should you require any further advice in relation to this matter please don’t hesitate to contact the Freedom of Information Unit. Please also be advised that should the request be refined, it does not remove the public authorities right to cite exemptions if relevant.

 

Although excess cost removes the forces obligations under the Freedom of Information Act to provide any further information, as a gesture of goodwill, I have provided information, relative to question 1 and an estimate of question 2 of your request which has been easily retrievable and outlined below. I trust this is helpful, but it does not affect our legal right to rely on the fees regulations for the remainder of your request.

 

Please note:  Outlined below is an estimate of the number of ASB incident records that were attended by a Police Officer or a Police Community Support Officer (PCSO). As this is an estimate the figures provided may not be accurate. In order to provide an accurate response each ASB incident record would need to be reviewed as outlined above in the time estimate.

 

2019 = 7124 reports of ASB –  it is estimated that 6550 were attended by a Police Officer or a Police Community Support Officer (PCSO)

 

2020 = 12946 reports of ASB – it is estimated that 11506 were attended by a Police Officer or a Police Community Support Officer (PCSO)

 

2021 = 6075 reports of ASB –  it is estimated that 5517 were attended by a Police Officer or a Police Community Support Officer (PCSO)

 

2022 = 5097 reports of ASB – it is estimated that 4583 were attended by a Police Officer or a Police Community Support Officer (PCSO)

 

                                                                                                                                               

 

(This is a response under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and disclosed on 06/02/23)