Devon & Cornwall Constabulary Homophobia

Dear Mr Lidbury

I write in connection with your request for information which was received
by this office on May 12, 2009. I understand you are requesting the
following information:

[1] all documents relating to any complaint made against PC
Alexander & colleague (Cornwall police) regarding homophobia &
'stop & search' of a gay youth [2] all documents relating to any
internal investigation of PC Alexander by Devon and Cornwall
Constabulary

Your request will be considered in accordance with the Freedom of
Information Act 2000. You should expect to be sent a response within the
statutory limit of 20 working days, subject to the provisions of the Act.

Should you have any further inquiries concerning this matter, please
contact me quoting my reference number as above.

Yours sincerely

Rebecca Hudson
Assistant Freedom of Information Officer
(01392 452204 (x22204)
Information Management Department
Devon & Cornwall Constabulary

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References

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1. http://www.devon-cornwall.police.uk/

Dear Mr Lidbury

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT REQUEST NO 372/2009-01337

I write in connection with your request for information which was received
by this office on May 11, 2009. I understand you are requesting the
following information:

[1] all documents relating to any complaint made against PC Alexander &
colleague (Cornwall police) regarding homophobia & 'stop & search' of a
gay youth [2] all documents relating to any internal investigation of PC
Alexander by Devon and Cornwall Constabulary

I regret to inform you that your request will not be sent to you within
the 20 working day deadline as laid out under the Act. I hope to respond
to your request for information very soon.

I apologise for this delay, and do hope this does not cause any
significant inconvenience.

Should you have any further inquiries concerning this matter, please
contact me quoting my reference number as above.

Yours sincerely

Georgie

Georgina Kemp (56133)
Freedom of Information Assistant Officer
Tel 01392 452839 (22839)
[email address]
Freedom of Information Dept
Please consider the environment - do you really need to print this email?

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References

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1. http://www.devon-cornwall.police.uk/

Dear Mr Lidbury

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT REQUEST NO 372/2009-01337

I write in connection with your request for information which was received
by this office on May 11, 2009. I understand you are requesting the
following information:

[1] all documents relating to any complaint made against PC Alexander &
colleague (Cornwall police) regarding homophobia & 'stop & search' of a
gay youth
[2] all documents relating to any internal investigation of PC Alexander
by Devon and Cornwall Constabulary

Your request for information will not be processed.

I have decided that your request is vexatious and in accordance with
section 14(1) the Freedom of Information Act 2000 Devon and Cornwall
Constabulary is not obliged to comply with a request for information that
is vexatious.

The reasons that I have concluded that your request is vexatious is
because it is one in a series of requests from you on complaints against
police officers. Your requests on this subject are causing a considerable
burden to this organisation in terms of distraction and I believe that
they are manifestly unreasonable.

You have the right to ask us to review this decision. If you wish us to
review this decision please set out your grounds for review in writing and
send it to the Force Information Manager, Citizen Focus Portfolio, Devon &
Cornwall Constabulary, Middlemoor, Exeter, EX2 7HQ, Devon.

Further information about your rights is also available from the
Information Commissioner at Commissioner's Officer, Wycliffe House, Water
Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF, telephone 01625 545700.

Yours sincerely

Georgie

Georgina Kemp (56133)
Freedom of Information Assistant Officer
Tel 01392 452839 (22839)
[email address]
Freedom of Information Dept
Please consider the environment - do you really need to print this email?

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References

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1. http://www.devon-cornwall.police.uk/

Dear Mr Lidbury

I refer to you email dated 9th June 2009 submitting a compliant that Devon
& Cornwall Constabulary had failed to meet the requirements of Section
10(1) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, in respect of the above
request, in that it failed to provide a response to your request within
the stipulated 20 working days.

I accept that the complaint is justified and apologise for the late
response. By way of mitigation I would explain that within a constrained
resource budget, the FOI Unit of the Constabulary is subject to a workload
of FOI requests that is increasing in number and complexity year on year.
In fact in the period that you submitted this request, as part of a
sequence of eight separate requests submitted in a single day and thirteen
separate requests submitted over a span of 20 days, the force was actually
dealing with its highest workload of request since the Freedom of
Information Act was enacted in January 2005. Notwithstanding these facts,
we did fail to respond in the designated time, and for this once again I
apologise.

I now understand that in terms of the finalisation of this request
specific, you have been notified that it has been designated as vexatious
and repeated request as per Section 14 (1) of the of the Freedom of
Information Act 2000 and that no response will be provided. You do, of
course have a right to appeal the decision.

John Ellis
Head of Information Management
Devon & Cornwall Constabulary

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References

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1. http://www.devon-cornwall.police.uk/

I acknowledge receipt of your email dated 6th July 2009 requesting that
Devon and Cornwall Constabulary review its decision related to the above
request.

My understanding is that the issues you have raised are linked to the
application the application of Section 14 of the Freedom of Information
Act 2000.

It is the Police Service's policy to deal with complaints and appeals in a
timely manner. Thus, the target time for responding to appeals and
complaints should be as soon as practicable, and in any case within two
months. The file has now been submitted for a review of the decision to be
conducted by an independent reviewer, in accordance with the Force's
review procedure. Every effort will be made to provide a prompt response.
If, for any reason the review cannot be completed by 1st September 2009, I
will contact you.

If you wish to discuss this matter prior to the Force's response please
contact me.

John Ellis
Head of Information Management.

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References

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1. http://www.devon-cornwall.police.uk/

Dear Mr. Lidbury

I refer to your email dated 9th July 2009 requesting that Devon and Cornwall Constabulary review its response to the provision of information, under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, relating to your request .

I can advise that, following the consideration of the request by an independent reviewer it has been found that the original notification by the Freedom of Information Unit, that the request was vexatious was correct. Therefore no disclosure will be made by the Constabulary and this notification should be considered a refusal.

In line with the decision made relating to your appeal, I must advise you that under Section 50 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, you have the right to appeal to the Information Commissioner to review the application and the Constabulary’s response. The address of the Information Commissioner is;
The Office of the Information Commissioner
Wycliffe House, Water Lane,
Wilmslow
Cheshire SK9 5AF;
Tel: 01625 545745
Fax: 01625 524510
e.mail: [email address]

Yours sincerely

John Ellis
Head of Information Management.

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