Aggregate data on criminal activity, squatting, and / or damage in business properties

The request was partially successful.

Dear North Wales Police,

In terms of the Freedom of Information Act of 2000, could you please provide me with the following information for each of the last five years (i.e. 2011 to 2015), and tallied by borough council in which the incidents occurred:

1. Total number of empty business premises (including retail, office and industrial) affected by each of (as a direct consequence of their being empty):
a. Criminal activity
b. Squatting
c. Damage
2. Total number of occupied business premises (including retail, office and industrial) affected by each of:
a. Criminal activity
b. Squatting
c. Damage
3. Where possible, total value in GBP of the theft or damage to empty business premises (including retail, office and industrial) by each of (as a direct consequence of their being empty):
a. Criminal activity
b. Squatting
c. Damage
4. Where possible, total value in GBP of the theft or damage to occupied business premises (including retail, office and industrial) by each of:
a. Criminal activity
b. Squatting
c. Damage

If the value in GBP is not known, then please provide the balance of data requested.

Please provide this as machine-readable as either a CSV or Microsoft Excel file, capable of re-use, and under terms of the Open Government Licence.

Yours faithfully,

Gavin Chait

Freedom of Information Team, North Wales Police

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Chait,

Enquiry Ref: 2016/327

I acknowledge receipt of your Freedom of Information request.

 

As set out by the Freedom of Information Act, it will be our aim to
respond to your request by 27/04/2016. In some cases, however, we may be
unable to achieve this deadline. If this occurs, we will advise you of the
likely timescale within which the response will be provided. 

If you have any questions regarding your request, please contact me.

Yours sincerely,

 

p.p. Ceri Hollingworth

Ymchwilydd Rhyddid Gwybodaeth/Freedom of Information Researcher

Uned Rhyddid Gwybodaeth a’r Cynllun Cyhoeddi/ Freedom of Information and
Publication Scheme Unit                         

Prif Swyddog Gwybodaeth/ Chief Information Officer

Gwasanaethau Corfforaethol/Corporate Services

Ffôn /Phone: 01492 805430 

Est/ Ext: 05430

E-bost/ E-mail [1][email address]

[2]1 NWP Strapline Logo Colour (B)

 

 

 

 

 

Oeddech chi’n gwybod bod modd i chi gael mynediad i wybodaeth am Heddlu
Gogledd Cymru drwy Gynllun Cyhoeddi a Log Datgeliadau Heddlu Gogledd
Cymru?  Mae’r ddau ar gael drwy’r dolenni cyswllt isod:

 

Did you know you can access information about North Wales Police via the
North Wales Police Publication Scheme and the North Wales Police
Disclosure Log?  Both are available via the below links:

 

[3]http://www.north-wales.police.uk/accessi...

 

[4]http://www.north-wales.police.uk/previou...

 

References

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Freedom of Information Team, North Wales Police

5 Attachments

Dear Mr Chait

 

In response to your recent request for information, please find attached
our reply.

 

I have also attached a copy of our review procedure should you not be
happy with our response.

 

Regards,

 

 

Ceri Hollingworth

Uned Rhyddid Gwybodaeth / Freedom of Information
Unit                         

Prif Swyddog Gwybodaeth/ Chief Information Officer

Gwasanaethau Corfforaethol/Corporate Services

Ffôn /Phone 01492 805430

Est/ Ext 05430

E.bost/ E.mail [1][email address]

[2]1 NWP Strapline Logo Colour (B)

 

 

 

Oeddech chi’n gwybod bod modd i chi gael mynediad i wybodaeth am Heddlu
Gogledd Cymru drwy Gynllun Cyhoeddi a Log Datgeliadau Heddlu Gogledd
Cymru?  Mae’r ddau ar gael drwy’r dolenni cyswllt isod:

 

Did you know you can access information about North Wales Police via the
North Wales Police Publication Scheme and the North Wales Police
Disclosure Log?  Both are available via the below links:

 

[3]http://www.north-wales.police.uk/accessi...

 

[4]http://www.north-wales.police.uk/previou...

 

References

Visible links
1. mailto:[email address]
3. http://www.north-wales.police.uk/accessi...
4. http://www.north-wales.police.uk/previou...

Dear Freedom of Information Team,

Thank you for the data provided. Are you able to provide the PDF documents in a machine-readable format (CSV) or even Excel?

Yours sincerely,

Gavin Chait

Gavin Chait left an annotation ()

North Wales have provided a list of the incidents of crime, but not the cost. The cost component was considered too expensive to produce.

The tables provided require some manual extraction, but the ratio between crimes in occupied and unoccupied properties appears to be similar to that for Thames Valley Police: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/a...

North Wales have provided their data, rather unhelpfully, in a password-protected PDF. The occupied crimes list contains 592 pages. I have estimated the counts:

Total crimes reported between 2011-2015:
Occupied business premises: 17760
Unoccupied business premises: 420

I don't know how many properties this covers, but probably in the region of 40,000. As with Thames Valley data, empty property crime is fairly insignificant (with the caveat that different police authorities will report crime differently).

Freedom of Information Team, North Wales Police

1 Attachment

As requested

Ceri Hollingworth
Uned Rhyddid Gwybodaeth / Freedom of Information Unit                         
Prif Swyddog Gwybodaeth/ Chief Information Officer
Gwasanaethau Corfforaethol/Corporate Services
Ffôn /Phone 01492 805430
Est/ Ext 05430
E.bost/ E.mail [email address]

show quoted sections

Gavin Chait left an annotation ()

My estimates weren't too bad. Based on the spreadsheet provided:

Year - Occupied | Unoccupied
2011 - 3,073 | 60
2012 - 3,711 | 123
2013 - 4,087 | 103
2014 - 3,652 | 50
2015 - 3,385 | 87
Totals - 17,908 | 423

Dear Freedom of Information Team,

Thank you very much for the data. Are you able to provide a key to the terms used for Status? In particular, there are numerous 'UU undetected' and I'm not sure what that means.

Yours sincerely,

Gavin Chait

Freedom of Information Team, North Wales Police

'UU undetected' is the way it is recorded on our system, this is the status of the incident - undetected.

Ceri Hollingworth
Uned Rhyddid Gwybodaeth / Freedom of Information Unit                         
Prif Swyddog Gwybodaeth/ Chief Information Officer
Gwasanaethau Corfforaethol/Corporate Services
Ffôn /Phone 01492 805430
Est/ Ext 05430
E.bost/ E.mail [email address]

show quoted sections

Dear Freedom of Information Team,

'UU Undetected' ... as in, reported, investigated, but nothing found to have warranted the report? OK, that's great, thanks. It allows me to categorise the data better.

Yours sincerely,

Gavin Chait

Gavin Chait left an annotation ()

After further analysis, the bulk of reported crimes have to do with people-on-people crimes, rather than on property. A significant number of incidents are categorised as 'UU undetected', meaning that no crime was committed.

When I cleaned up the data (removing ‘undetected’, rapes, etc.), I ended up with an average of 1,780 crimes a year in occupied properties, and 26 crimes a year in unoccupied properties that largely have to do with theft, vandalism and arson.