De-arrest statistics

Dear Mr Perrin

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT 2000

Thank you for your request for information, received 13 March 2009
concerning the use of 'de-arrest' .

Your request is being considered and you will receive a response within
the statutory timescale of 20 working days, as defined by the Act, subject
to the application of any statutory exemptions. Where consideration is
being given to the application of any exemptions the 20 working day
timescale may be extended under the terms of the Act to a period
considered reasonable depending on the nature and circumstances of your
request. In such cases you will be notified and, where possible, a revised
time-scale will be indicated. In all cases we shall attempt to deal with
your request at the earliest opportunity.

There may be a fee payable for the retrieval, collation and provision of
the information requested, where the request exceeds the statutory limit.
In such cases you will be informed in writing and the 20 working day
timescale will be suspended until we receive payment from you or your
request is modified and /or reduced. If you chose not to make full payment
or modify your request then the request will remain unanswered.

Your request may require either full or partial transfer to another public
authority. You will be informed if your request is transferred.

Yours sincerely

Tom Hornshaw
FOI Unit, Administrative Assistant
Corporate Services Department
Email: [email address]
Internal: 7800 2070
External: 0845 113 5000 ext 7800 2070

Our vision: To reduce crime and make people feel safer

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Dear Mr Perrin

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT 2000 REQUEST REFERENCE No:

I acknowledge receipt of your letter, received 10 April 2009, requesting
West Midlands Police to review its response to your request for
information concerning the use of 'de-arrests'.

I understand the issue you are raising is that West Midlands Police have
failed to respond to you within the 20 working day deadline.

The review will be conducted in accordance with the West Midlands Police
review procedure and every effort will be made to have a response to you
by 12 May 2009. However, if it becomes clear that the review will not be
completed by this date you will be advised.

In respect of the original request I apologise for the delay. My
understanding is that, while to comply with the request would exceed the
appropriate limit (as stated in the Freedom of Information (Fees and
Appropriate Limit) Regulations 2004), there is some relevant information
that could be provided. This information however has attracted the
application of qualified exemptions (Section 31(1)(a)(b)(c) and Section
38(1)) to the provision of the information and the public interest test is
engaged. We are at the moment considering where the balance of the Public
Interest lies, and hope to provide a full response shortly and at the
latest by 06 May 2009. I am sorry that this information was not conveyed
to you.

These matters will of course be investigated fully during the internal
review.

If you wish to discuss this matter prior to West Midlands Police*s
response, please contact me,

Yours sincerely,

Sue Dimond

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Dear Mr Perrin

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT 2000

You request for information, received 11 March 2009 concerning people
arrested and then subsequently de-arrested has been considered. I
apologise for the lateness of this response.

Please note that we do not hold any *national data* and so we have treated
your request as relating to data relating to West Midlands Police.

Section 30(7) of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (PACE) requires
that where a person has been arrested and has not yet reached a police
station, if the constable is satisfied that there are no grounds for
keeping the person under arrest or releasing him/her on bail, they should
be released. This is the process commonly known as "de-arrest.

Most 'de-arrests' take place on the street. This usually means that an
officer has used his/her power of arrest to detain a person (often on
suspicion of committing an offence) and enquiries at the scene, for
example a street identification, reveal that the person is not the
offender. The person is then de-arrested. Another example would be where a
person is being reported for an offence but either refuses or the officer
suspects that a false name and address is being given. An arrest might
take place but if, before the person is brought to a police station, the
name and address is provided to the satisfaction of the officer, then the
person would be de-arrested. There would be no point in bringing such
persons before a Custody Officer at a police station to be 'refused
detention'.

Such information would be recorded in the relevant officer*s notebook.
Therefore to locate and extract the requested data would necessitate a
search of each officer*s notebook. Researching each individual notebook in
this way would exceed the appropriate limit (FOIA, s.12 (1)). This means
that the cost of providing you with the information 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.
For West Midlands Police, the appropriate limit is set at £450, as
prescribed by the Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate
Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004, S.I. 3244. In accordance with the
Freedom of Information Act 2000, this letter acts as a refusal notice.

However we do hold some data relevant to your request which is held
centrally and therefore can be provided within the cost limit. We hold
data on instances where an arrest has been made and the person brought
into Custody and the Custody Officer has 'Refused Detention'. This
generally means that the Custody Officer has decided that grounds for
arrest no longer apply and has released the person forthwith. While this
is not a *de-arrest* in the terms mentioned above, it is the closest data
we hold to your request.

Therefore if you require the data on Custody Records where the custody
officer has 'Refused Detention' for 2008 then please let me know and I
will consider release. You should note that the data are likely to involve
the consideration of the public interest because the data will attract the
consideration of the following exemptions: Section 31 (Law Enforcement),
Section 38 (Health and Safety) and Section 40 (Personal Data).

To enable us to proceed with your request I would be grateful if you could
confirm whether you wish us to provide the information outlined above. If
you chose not to respond then your request will remain unanswered.

Your attention is drawn to your right to request a re-examination of your
case under West Midlands Police review procedure (attached). Please note
that such an appeal must be received within six months of the date of this
correspondence.

If you require any further information, then please contact me.

Yours sincerely,

Freedom of Information Unit

West Midlands Police in complying with their statutory duty under sections
1 and 11 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 to release the enclosed
information will not breach the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
However, the rights of the copyright owner of the enclosed information
will continue to be protected by law. Applications for the copyright
owner*s written permission to reproduce any part of the attached
information should be addressed to The Force Solicitor, West Midlands
Police Headquarters, Lloyd House, Colmore Circus Queensway, Birmingham, B4
6NQ.

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Dear Mr Perrin

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT 2000 REQUEST REFERENCE No: 2230/09

Thank you for your email received 10 April 2009 where you requested West
Midlands Police to review its response to your request for information
concerning arrests and de-arrests.

Your complaint was that West Midlands Police failed to respond to your
request for information within the statutory 20 working days.

I have now completed a review of the circumstances around your request and
concluded that although West Midlands Police did fail to provide an answer
within the statutory twenty working days, the reason for the delay was our
wish to provide a meaningful response to your enquiry.

However, your complaint about the lateness of the response is upheld and I
offer my apologies for any inconvenience this may have caused you. West
Midlands Police are committed to fulfilling our responsibilities under the
Freedom of Information Act but the volume of requests we receive
occasionally means that we miss the legal deadline for reply. I can assure
you that every effort is made to provide a response to all requests within
the twenty day legal deadline.

If you are not content with the outcome of the internal review, you have
the right to apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a
decision. The Information Commissioner can be contacted at: Information
Commissioner*s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9
5AF

Yours sincerely,

FOI Unit Manager

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