Non-Hate crime incidents 489/23

FOI Reference: 489/2023

Request 1 - 3:

1) How many non-crime hate incidents have been recorded by your force in the 2022 calendar year?

2) In relation to the non-crime hate incidents recorded in 2022 please provide a breakdown by the hate motivation? Please provide this using the categories you use for this task, however, I would expect that some or all of the following would be included: Alternative subculture, disability, race, religion, sexual orientation, transgender, anti-semitic, asylum seeker/refugee, gypsy/traveller, islamaphobic and migrant worker.

3) In relation to all non-crime hate incidents that were logged by your force in the

calendar month of September 2022 could you please provide me with (i) the exact nature of the actions or exact words used, (ii) where it was carried out (either a location such as school, workplace, street etc, or a specific social media platform/internet, and (iii) the age of the perpetrator if known.

Response 1 & 2:

I can confirm that Dyfed-Powys Police does hold the information requested, as outlined below.

Number of Non Crime Hate Incidents recorded in 2022 broken down by category
Disability	19
Homophobic	18
Racial Offence	75
Religious/Faith Offence	2
Transphobic	10
Grand Total	124

Response 3(i):

I can confirm that Dyfed-Powys Police does hold the information requested; however we are exempting part of the information as we believe that the following exemption is relevant:

Section 40(2) Personal Information

Section 40(2) is a class-based absolute exemption. This means that the legislators when writing the legislation considered that the release of such information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 would cause harm to the public authority or individual concerned. There is therefore no requirement to carry out a HARM Test in respect of such information.  There is also no requirement to carry out a Public Interest Test.

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 individual requesting the information and disclosure under the Act must be made with that in mind. As such, any release that identifies an individual 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 individual (subject to subsection (14)(c)).

(3) ‘Identifiable living individual’ means a living individual 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 individual.”

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 General Data Protection Regulation (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.”

General Data Protection Regulation

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

“1. ‘Personal data’ shall be

• Processed lawfully, fairly and in a transparent manner in relation to the data subject (‘lawfulness, fairness and transparency);
• 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 an individual. In this particular case, to release specific details regarding the individuals involved within the incidents could lead to the identification of the individuals involved and to release such information would be a direct breach of Data Protection legislation. Therefore 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 a class-based exemption. This means that the legislators when writing the legislation considered that the release of such information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 would cause harm to the public authority or individual concerned. There is therefore no requirement to carry out a HARM Test in respect of such 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.

Response 3 (i):

I can confirm that Dyfed-Powys Police does hold the information requested, as outlined below.

Detail of exemption applied	Detail	Extended Detail Recorded
Section 40(2) – Personal Information exemption applied	TRANNY	The victim has heard the suspect shout a word from xxx property and deemed it was directed at xxx.
No Exemption Applied.	Called the victim and partner Retards whilst seeing the AO outside of their HA and believing it is aimed at them	IP has heard suspect call them a name that was perceived to be hate related.  Nothing said direct to IP.
No Exemption Applied.	NAZI	The alleged offender has posted inappropriate racial comments regarding the recent death of the Queen.
Section 40(2) – Personal Information exemption applied	Nigger	Unknown person has called a Door xxx a Nigger within hearing of the IP
Section 40(2) – Personal Information exemption applied	MOCKED xxx VOICE	IP states xxx friend told xxx that three xxx were mocking xxx voice because xxx is deaf. Third party report
Section 40(2) – Personal Information exemption applied	the N word was used	The IP has been in the xxx toilet, in a cubicle, during which other xxx have entered the toilets and have banged on the door. One of the xxx has then been heard using a racial comment.
Section 40(2) – Personal Information exemption applied	why are you wearing nail polish, do you have a willy	IP has been approached by xxx whilst inside the pub. xxx was asked why xxx was wearing black nail polish and then asked xxx if xxx got a willy. IP perceives this to be transphobic
Section 40(2) – Personal Information exemption applied	"fuck you chinks"	A group of 20 XXXX in fancy dress have been down in xxx drinking. As they have gone through xxx by the entrance to the harbour a campervan with Chinese people drove past and an unknown xxx in the group shouted at the van a comment
Section 40(2) – Personal Information exemption applied	FUCKING FAGGOT	IP had been in a pub where xxx had heard a comment made about xxx xxx. IP perceived the comment to be homophobic.
Section 40(2) – Personal Information exemption applied	"WONDER WHEN xxx WILL GET ITS OWN GROOMING GANG, WONT BE LONG NOW" "NOBODY WOULD DO ANYTHING ANYWAY xxx IS FULL OF SNOW FLAKES AND KEY BOARD WARRIORS" "IT WOULD PROBABLY BE UP TO US AND ANYONE WILLING TO STAND UP TO THEM, PROTEST OUTSIDE	PCSO xxx has been informed by a member of the mosque, that a Facebook post has been posted in regards to the mosque.
Section 40(2) – Personal Information exemption applied	YOU BLOODY ENGLISH	IP states a neighbour has driven past xxx house and shouted "You bloody English".
Section 40(2) – Personal Information exemption applied	Gay, Cocksucker, barking at IP (as if dog)	IP reports being called Gay and a cocksucker and believes this was targeted towards xxx
Section 40(2) – Personal Information exemption applied	xxx is working over here "FOR PAY BACK FOR xxx FAMILY".	Suspect has made comments about a member of the xxx staff insinuating that xxx is only working here for pay for xxx family.
No Exemption Applied.	MUSLIMS AND PAEDOPHILES ARE TAKING OVER MILFORD HAVEN	Suspect has posted a comment on social media stating a comment which IP has seen and believed to be racist.

Response 3(ii):

I can confirm that Dyfed-Powys Police does hold the information requested, as outlined below.

Location

Street x 4

Facebook x 2

Workplace x 2

Public House x 2

School

Home

Public Place/Highway

Workplace

Response 3(iii):

I can confirm that Dyfed-Powys Police does hold the information requested, as outlined below.

Age of Suspect/Offender
22
28
41
44
48
55
59
Unknown x 7

                                                                                                           

It should be noted that as a result of the systems adopted by Dyfed-Powys Police in relation to the recording of such information that the information released may or may not be accurate.

Furthermore, it should also be noted that Police forces in the United Kingdom are routinely required to provide crime statistics to government bodies and the recording criteria is set nationally. However, the systems used for recording these figures are not generic, nor are the procedures used locally in capturing the crime data. It should be noted that for these reasons this force's response to your questions should not be used for comparison purposes with any other response you may receive.

(This is a response under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and disclosed on 29.02.2024)