Tool thefts 22/2024

FOI Reference: 22/2024

Request:

For each of the following calendar years, please state how many instances of tool theft you have had reported in your region, broken down by month:

• 2022
• 2023

For each of the following calendar years, please state how many instances of tool theft from vehicles you have had reported in your region, broken down by month:

• 2022
• 2023

If you are unable to provide monthly breakdowns as requested above, please still provide the yearly total in any case. If it is not possible to provide all the information requested, please provide as much as possible in the time available. Please also provide advice and/or assistance as to where to find this information if it is publicly available or how I can refine my request.

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 554 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 relation part of your request is not held in an easily retrievable format. This is due to the fact that with our current crime recording system, we are unable to filter by property code or “MO” and cannot keyword search the records either, therefore for data after 12/05/23 we would have to manually interrogate each theft or theft from vehicle record to ascertain if the property stolen included tools.

It has been established that there are a total of 3,325 records that would require individual interrogation and it has been estimated that it would take a minimum of 10 minutes to research each individual record. The relevant time estimate is detailed below:

13/05/2023 – 31/12/2023- 3186 theft offences x 10 minutes per record = 531 hours

13/05/2023 – 31/12/2023- 139 theft from vehicle offences x 10 minutes per record = 23 hours

Total time estimate to complete whole request = 554.2 hours

In accordance 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 me.

Please also be advised that should the request be refined, it does not remove the Force’s right to cite exemptions if relevant.

Although excess cost removed the force’s obligations under the Freedom of Information Act, as a gesture of goodwill, I have supplied information, relative to your request, retrieved or available before it was realised that the fees limit would be exceeded. 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.

Number of “tool thefts” in 2022: 26

Number of “tool thefts” in 2023 (up to 12/05/2023): 22

Number of “tool thefts” from vehicles in 2022: 9

Number of “tool thefts” from vehicles in 2023 (up to 12/05/2023): 9

Please Note: The above figures indicate the number of thefts from a vehicle involving a property item of: `Power tool’, `Tool bag’, `tool box’, `tools’ and/or `tool’s.  There may be additional thefts recorded mentioning tools by specific names that have been missed by this search.

                                                                                                          

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 08/02/2024)