Police Resources

Dear Mr Bennett

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT 2000

Thank you for your request for information, received 8 January
2010, concerning police resources.

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,

Freedom of Information Unit

Dear Mr Bennett

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT 2000

Thank you for your request for information, received 07 January 2010
concerning the number of West Midlands Police officers by rank. This
request is being handled under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

I am writing to ask you to clarify your request. This is because we need
further details from you in order to identify and locate the information.

We do not classify officers in terms of *response* or *administrative*
duties. We have HMI types of Operational and Operational Support,
Organisational and Organisational Support but that's about the most we do
for identifying posts as operational or not.

Neighbourhood Teams would be classed as operational. However some other
functions (for example CID and custody) are also classed as operational,
even though they are not "response". They are not really office-based
either and could be classed as "customer facing".

In light of the above and in order to assist you, I can tell you that West
Midlands Police could supply data on neighbourhood teams and road
policing units (including motorway). Both of these patrol the streets on
foot or in a vehicle on a daily basis. Please let me know whether these
data or some other information would satisfy your request:

To enable us to proceed with your request I would be grateful if you could
provide the clarification outlined above. After receiving your reply, your
request will be 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. If you chose not to respond
then your request will remain unanswered.

Yours sincerely,

Freedom of Information Unit

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Dear Mr Bennett

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT 2000

Further to your email, received 07 January 2010 and subsequently clarified
concerning officers by rank I am pleased to enclose the following
information. Please note that these data are the closest we hold to your
request. They should not be interpreted as representing anything other
than as described in this response.

The attached document 3158_ans_01.pdf shows the number of officers by duty
and rank, as at 26 January 2010.

Every effort is made to ensure that the figures presented are accurate and
complete. However, it is important to note that these data have been
extracted from large disparate administrative data systems used by forces
for police purposes. The detail collected to respond specifically to your
request is subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large scale
recording system. As a consequence, care should be taken to ensure data
collection processes and their inevitable limitations are taken into
account when interpreting those data.

The figures provided therefore are our best interpretation of relevance of
data to your request but you should be aware that the collation of figures
for ad hoc requests may have limitations and this should be taken into
account when those data are used.

If you decide to write an article / use the enclosed data we would ask you
to take into consideration the factors highlighted in this document so as
to not mislead members of the public or official bodies or misrepresent
the relevance of the whole or any part of this disclosed material.

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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