Data concerning crimes involving online dating services

The request was successful.

Hello,

Hello, I’m a reporter working for RADAR, the Press Association’s data department.
I’d be grateful if you could help me to acquire as much information as possible relating to crimes that have been linked to dating platforms during national lockdown periods.
Full disclosure of data as outlined below would be much appreciated and I would be grateful for your advice and direction, as specified under the Freedom of Information Act, if you feel there’s a way of better refining my request to allow you to retrieve the information I’m interested in. Please do feel free to contact me to clarify any of the requests below, if necessary.
If you could disclose your response in an Excel spreadsheet, that would be really helpful.
For questions one, three and five, please structure the worksheet with column headings as follows: DATING SITE, NO. OFFENCES MARCH-MAY 2020, NO. OFFENCES NOV-DEC 2020, NO.OFFENCES 2017, NO. OFFENCES 2018, NO. OFFENCES 2019.
For question two and four, please structure the worksheet with the following column headings: DATE, DATING PLATFORM, OFFENCE DESCRIPTION, OUTCOME, VICTIM AGE, VICTIM GENDER, SUSPECT AGE, SUSPECT GENDER

1. Between March 23 2020 and May 10 2020 inclusive, what was the total number of offences recorded involving the terms Tinder; Plenty of Fish; Ok Cupid; Hinge; Bumble; Grindr; match.com and eHarmony? Please provide a breakdown of the total number of offences for each keyword.
2. For each recorded incident, please provide the following details: dating website/keyword linked to crime, offence description, victim age, victim gender and crime outcome where possible
3. Between Nov 5 2020 and Dec 2 2020 inclusive, what was the total number of offences recorded involving the terms Tinder; Plenty of Fish; Ok Cupid; Hinge; Bumble; Grindr; match.com; eHarmony. As above, please also provide a breakdown of the total number of offences linked to each dating platform.
4. For each recorded incident, please provide the following details: dating website/keyword linked to crime; offence description, victim age, victim gender, suspect age, suspect gender (where known) and crime outcome where possible
5. For the same periods in 2017, 2018, 2019, please provide a total figure for each year for offences recorded involving the terms Tinder; Plenty of Fish; Ok Cupid; Hinge; Bumble; Grindr; match.com; eHarmony. Please breakdown by keyword/dating platform mentioned.

Again, if you feel this request should be refined in order to get as much information as possible within cost and time limits, please contact me to discuss as soon as you are able.

You can email me at [email address] or call me on 0207 963 7713.

Yours faithfully,

Joanna Morris

Freedom of Information, Cleveland Police

This mailbox is for Freedom of Information requests only and all other
mail will be deleted unactioned.

 

For Legal please forward your e-mail to
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check the Subject Access section of the Cleveland Police website under the
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enquiries please contact Cleveland Police via 101.

 

References

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Freedom of Information, Cleveland Police

Dear Ms Morris,

Enquiry Ref: 12444/2020

I acknowledge receipt of your request for information dated 8th December 2020 and received by this office on that date.

As set out by the Freedom of Information Act it will be our aim to respond to your request within 20 working days that is by 7th January 2021. In some cases, however, we may be unable to achieve this deadline and would hope to contact you should this be the case.

Please note: Although every effort will be made to ensure a response is provided within statutory deadlines, due to current circumstances delays may be unavoidable. We apologise for any inconvenience and will endeavour to process your request as quickly as is practicable.

Please note the ‘working day’ is defined as any day other than a Saturday, a Sunday, or a day which is a bank holiday in any part of the United Kingdom. The first reckonable day is the first working day after receipt.

If you have any questions regarding your request please contact this office.

Yours sincerely,

Ms E McGuigan
Freedom of Information Decision Maker
Directorate of Standards and Ethics
Cleveland Community Safety Hub | 1 Cliffland Way | Hemlington | TS8 9GL
E-mail: [email address]

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“Delivering outstanding policing for our communities”

Please do not use social media or email to report crime as we do not monitor these accounts 24/7. Dial 999 in an emergency or visit the contact us section of our website for all reporting options.

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Freedom of Information, Cleveland Police

1 Attachment

Dear Ms Morris,

Enquiry Ref: 12444/2020

I write in connection with your request for information dated 8th December 2020 and received by this office on that date. Below are the questions raised in your request and all of the information we have been able to retrieve.

1. Between March 23 2020 and May 10 2020 inclusive, what was the total number of offences recorded involving the terms Tinder; Plenty of Fish; Ok Cupid; Hinge; Bumble; Grindr; match.com and eHarmony? Please provide a breakdown of the total number of offences for each keyword.
2. For each recorded incident, please provide the following details: dating website/keyword linked to crime, offence description, victim age, victim gender and crime outcome where possible
3. Between Nov 5 2020 and Dec 2 2020 inclusive, what was the total number of offences recorded involving the terms Tinder; Plenty of Fish; Ok Cupid; Hinge; Bumble; Grindr; match.com; eHarmony. As above, please also provide a breakdown of the total number of offences linked to each dating platform.
4. For each recorded incident, please provide the following details: dating website/keyword linked to crime; offence description, victim age, victim gender, suspect age, suspect gender (where known) and crime outcome where possible
5. For the same periods in 2017, 2018, 2019, please provide a total figure for each year for offences recorded involving the terms Tinder; Plenty of Fish; Ok Cupid; Hinge; Bumble; Grindr; match.com; eHarmony. Please breakdown by keyword/dating platform mentioned.
a) We have made enquiries with the PQR Performance team analyst and they have provided the information in the attached document.

Additionally Cleveland police would also rely upon;

Section 1 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) 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 FOIA requires that we provide the applicant with a notice which: a) states that fact b) specifies the exemption(s) in question and c) states (if that would not otherwise be apparent) why the exemption applies.
Cleveland Police can neither confirm nor deny that it holds information pertinent to this request as the duty in Section 1(1) (a) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 does not apply, by virtue of the following exemptions:
Section 30(1) Investigation’s and Proceedings;
Section 40(2) Personal Information

Section 30 is a class based qualified exemption which means the public interest must be considered.

Information exempt by virtue of Section 30 (1) (a) (b) & (c) is exempt information if it has been held by the authority for the purposes of (a) any investigation which the public authority has a duty to conduct with a view to it being ascertained (i) whether a person should be charged with an offence, or (ii) whether any person charged with an offence is guilty of it, (b) any investigation which is conducted by the authority and in the circumstances may lead to a decision by the authority to institute criminal proceedings which the authority has the power to conduct or (c) any criminal proceedings which the authority has the power to conduct.

Public Interest test - Considerations favouring disclosure.
Accountability: Disclosure could provide the investigating officers with additional information.
Public awareness: Disclosure of the information in relation to an on-going investigation may enhance the ability and professionalism of the force and individual officers.

Considerations favouring non-disclosure.
Exemption provisions
Public safety: By the inappropriate release of information, which could undermine an on-going investigation and/or the court system?

Balancing Test: whilst the public interest considerations favouring disclosure are noted in considering the arguments for and against release of the information requested, the balance in the public interest favours non-disclosure. Disclosure, at this moment in time other law enforcement may either be compromised or significantly weaken any on-going investigations and any future investigations.
Section 40 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 is a class based and absolute exemption. This indicates that the legislators when writing this piece of legislation considered that the release of this type of information would cause harm to either the authority or the individuals involved.

By way of explanation to you I would point out the following: Under subsection 2 of Section 40 of The Freedom of Information Act, information is exempt information if it constitutes personal information of which the applicant is not the data subject. In order to be considered exempt personal information, the information must satisfy one of two conditions. It must either be information which would be exempt from disclosure to the data subject under the provisions of the Data Protection Act (General Data Protection Regulation) 2018, or disclosure of the information would contravene any of the Data Protection Principles or cause damage or distress to the data subject.

On this occasion the information requested is clearly personal information and would contravene the first principle of the Data protection Act 2018 (GDPR) - Article 5(1) requires that personal data shall be:
(a) processed lawfully, fairly and in a transparent manner in relation to individuals (‘lawfulness, fairness and transparency’) that is what are the likely expectations of the data subjects, in that would they expect the Cleveland Police to release personal details to the world, since release of information under The Freedom of Information Act 2000, is release to the world at large and not just to the individual applicant and as such I believe to do so would amount to unfair processing and hence therefore is exempt under Section 40(2)(a).

Section 40 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 is a class based and absolute exemption. This indicates that the legislators when writing this piece of legislation considered that the release of this type of information would cause harm to either the authority or the individuals involved.

This should not be taken as conclusive evidence that any information that would meet your request exists or does not exist.

Please note any statistical data supplied in relation to Freedom of Information requests is a snapshot of data held at the time the request was received by the Freedom of Information office and is subject to constant change/updates.

The Cleveland Police response to your request is unique and it should be noted that Police Forces do not use generic systems or identical procedures to capture and record data therefore responses from Cleveland Police should not be used as a comparison with any other force response you receive.

If you are not satisfied with this response or any actions taken in dealing with your request you have the right to request an independent internal review of your case under our review procedure. The APP College of Policing guidance states that a request for internal review should be made within 20 working days of the date on this response or 40 working days if extenuating circumstances to account for the delay can be evidenced.

We have made every effort to ensure a response was provided within statutory deadlines, however due to current circumstances delays have been unavoidable. If your response was late we apologise for any inconvenience it may have caused and thank you for your patience. If we can be of any further assistance please do not hesitate to contact this office.

Yours sincerely,

Ms E McGuigan
Freedom of Information Decision Maker
Directorate of Standards and Ethics
Cleveland Community Safety Hub | 1 Cliffland Way | Hemlington | TS8 9GL
E-mail: [email address]

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | LinkedIn

       
Public Service | Transparency | Impartiality | Integrity

“Delivering outstanding policing for our communities”

Please do not use social media or email to report crime as we do not monitor these accounts 24/7. Dial 999 in an emergency or visit the contact us section of our website for all reporting options.

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