Vehicle pursuit footage 920/2025

FOI Reference: 920/2025

Request:

I am seeking access to any archived footage or recorded data related to vehicle pursuits (car chases) conducted by your force between January 2020 and December 2024.

If raw video footage is unavailable due to retention policies or exemptions, I would be grateful for:

1. Summaries or logs of vehicle pursuit incidents during that time
2. Details such as date, time, general location, duration, and outcome
3. Information on your force's policy for the retention and archiving of dashcam, bodycam, or CCTV footage in such cases

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 113 hours) to comply with this part of your request. The regulations can be located @ https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2004/3244

The Freedom of Information Department has been advised that the information in relation to your request is not held in an easily retrievable format. This is due to the fact that the data is not held in an easily retrievable format.

It has been estimated that there are approximately 450 records that would require individual interrogation to locate, review, document and summarise as per the request at 10 minutes per record. A time estimate is provided below:

450 records  x 10 minutes per record = 75 hours

Furthermore, In order to then identify the outcome of each pursuit, each incident number would require manual interrogation to locate and identify the outcome.  It has been estimated that it would take an additional 5 minutes per record: A further time estimate is provided below:

450 records x 5 minutes per record = 38 hours

Total time estimate to complete whole request is approximately 113 hours

Please note: If an amended request is received within the timeframe permitted, significant exemptions may be applied to the response due to personal data that is held within the recording such as faces of those involved, number plates as well as redacting officer communications which may identify individuals. This may also include a Time Estimate response to apply the redactions.

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.

Goodwill Responses to Question 3:

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

The force Records Management policy is published on the external website –

https://www.dyfed-powys.police.uk/foi-ai/dyfed-powys-police/publication-scheme/our-policies-and-procedures/Policies/information-management-ICT/records-management-policy/

(This is a response under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and disclosed on 16/10/2025)