The policing of fracking and fossil fuel extraction/exploration activities in your constabulary

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Dear Derbyshire Constabulary,

I am writing on behalf of the Office of Keith Taylor MEP; I would like to make the following requests relating to the policing of any fracking, oil and/or gas drilling/exploration protests and opposition in your constabulary in the last five years - for the purposes of this request 'site/s' also includes the offices/headquarters of any firms linked to the drilling activities that have attracted protests and opposition.

The questions should follow logically and should not prove too burdensome to answer. I have tried to be as clear as possible, but please let me know at the earliest possible opportunity if you require any clarifications.

I am requesting all of the information in digital form, an excel file for data is preferred to graphs and tables embedded within pdf files.

Can you please provide the answers to the following questions, in every case I am asking for details within the last five years and by 'drilling' I mean shale gas exploration, conventional and unconventional oil and gas drilling:

Staffing

1. Have there been any licences granted for drilling in your constabulary?
2. Have there been any licences granted for drilling in your constabulary that has required your force to deploy officers to manage/police any opposition/protests in relation to those drilling licences?
3. If yes, in relation to which licences and sites has officers from your force been employed?
4. How many officers have been on-site to police protests since the first deployment until the present day - a cumulative total is requested?
5. Have all of the officers on-site been from the Derbyshire Constabulary?
6. If not, from which constabularies and in what numbers were officers drafted?
7. Which force was responsible for covering the cost of bringing in officers from outside the Derbyshire Constabulary?
8. What has the total cost been, so far, to the Derbyshire Constabulary, for bringing in officers from outside the Derbyshire Constabulary?

Costs

9. How many staff hours in total, from the first deployment until the time of this request, has been diverted to policing the aforementioned protests?
10. How many Derbyshire Constabulary officers have been taken from other, regular duties to police the protests?
11. How many Derbyshire Constabulary officers are working overtime to cover the protests?
12. What is the highest payment/remuneration paid to an officer for one shift covering the protest, including any bonus or overtime payments? How long was said shift?
13. What is the average amount of extra/bonus/overtime remuneration paid to all of the officers who have been responsible for policing these sites?
14. What has been the total cost to Derbyshire Constabulary for the policing of drilling sites, from first deployment until the time of this request?
15. How much have the firm/s operating the licence/s paid Derbyshire Constabulary to cover the cost of the policing efforts?

Arrests

16. How many arrests have been made during the policing operation at the site/s? (Can arrestee details be categorized by age, gender, and town/city of residence, please?)
17. What were the grounds of each arrest?
18. How many of those arrested were later charged? (Can the details of those charged be categorized by age, gender, and town/city of residence, please?)
19. Of those charged, how many cases progressed to court? (Can the details of the people in those cases be categorized by age, gender, and town/city of residence, please?)
20. How many charges were dropped before any court appearance? (Can the details of those charged, whose charges were later dropped, be categorized by age, gender, and town/city of residence, please?)
21. Of the cases that progressed to court, how many defendants were found guilty of the charge against them? (Can the plea of the defendant, their age, gender, and town/city of residence also be provided, please?)

Use of force

22. How many reports of violence or aggression against your officers have you received - in relation to the policing of the site/s?
23. Have any of your officers reported any injuries sustained during the policing of the site/s?
24. If so, what were their injuries and how were they sustained?
25. How many official complaints have Derbyshire Constabulary received by protesters and local residents about the policing of their activities at the site/s?
26. What were the complaints relating to?
27. How many 'use of force' reports have been submitted by officers at the site/s? (I would like the day as the number of reports per day, from the first deployment until the present day)
28. Can you provide any further details of the nature of the force detailed in the reports? If so, what force was used against protesters?
29. What equipment are officers permitted to use in the course of their policing at the site/s (i.e. batons, cuffs, spray, etc.)?
30. How often has Derbyshire Constabulary had cause to use any of that equipment, and what specifically, since first deployment at the site/s and the date of this request?
31. Are officers been given any specific training before being deployed on the site/s for the first time?
32. If so, what is the training?
33. If no, why not?

Training and guidelines

34. Does Derbyshire Constabulary have any specific guidelines relating to the policing of protests at the site/s - particularly relating to 'slow walking' protests?
35. If so, what are those guidelines and how were they communicated to protesters?
36. Is there a record of the number of times protesters broke those guidelines and what action was taken?
37. If yes, please provide those details.

Yours faithfully,

Liam Ward

Freedom of Information Office, Derbyshire Constabulary

Dear Mr Ward

 

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST

 

I write in connection with your request for information as shown below.

 

Can you please provide the answers to the following questions, in every
case I am asking for details within the last five years and by 'drilling'
I mean shale gas exploration, conventional and unconventional oil and gas
drilling:

 

Staffing

 

1. Have there been any licences granted for drilling in your constabulary?

2. Have there been any licences granted for drilling in your constabulary
that has required your force to deploy officers to manage/police any
opposition/protests in relation to those drilling licences?

3. If yes, in relation to which licences and sites has officers from your
force been employed?

4. How many officers have been on-site to police protests since the first
deployment until the present day - a cumulative total is requested?

5. Have all of the officers on-site been from the Derbyshire Constabulary?

6. If not, from which constabularies and in what numbers were officers
drafted?

7. Which force was responsible for covering the cost of bringing in
officers from outside the Derbyshire Constabulary?

8. What has the total cost been, so far, to the Derbyshire Constabulary,
for bringing in officers from outside the Derbyshire Constabulary?

 

Costs

 

9. How many staff hours in total, from the first deployment until the time
of this request, has been diverted to policing the aforementioned
protests?

10. How many Derbyshire Constabulary officers have been taken from other,
regular duties to police the protests?

11. How many Derbyshire Constabulary officers are working overtime to
cover the protests?

12. What is the highest payment/remuneration paid to an officer for one
shift covering the protest, including any bonus or overtime payments? How
long was said shift?

13. What is the average amount of extra/bonus/overtime remuneration paid
to all of the officers who have been responsible for policing these sites?

14. What has been the total cost to Derbyshire Constabulary for the
policing of drilling sites, from first deployment until the time of this
request?

15. How much have the firm/s operating the licence/s paid Derbyshire
Constabulary to cover the cost of the policing efforts?

 

Arrests

 

16. How many arrests have been made during the policing operation at the
site/s? (Can arrestee details be categorized by age, gender, and town/city
of residence, please?) 17. What were the grounds of each arrest?

18. How many of those arrested were later charged? (Can the details of
those charged be categorized by age, gender, and town/city of residence,
please?) 19. Of those charged, how many cases progressed to court? (Can
the details of the people in those cases be categorized by age, gender,
and town/city of residence, please?) 20. How many charges were dropped
before any court appearance? (Can the details of those charged, whose
charges were later dropped, be categorized by age, gender, and town/city
of residence, please?) 21. Of the cases that progressed to court, how many
defendants were found guilty of the charge against them? (Can the plea of
the defendant, their age, gender, and town/city of residence also be
provided, please?)

 

Use of force

 

22. How many reports of violence or aggression against your officers have
you received - in relation to the policing of the site/s?

23. Have any of your officers reported any injuries sustained during the
policing of the site/s?

24. If so, what were their injuries and how were they sustained?

25. How many official complaints have Derbyshire Constabulary received by
protesters and local residents about the policing of their activities at
the site/s?

26. What were the complaints relating to?

27. How many 'use of force' reports have been submitted by officers at the
site/s? (I would like the day as the number of reports per day, from the
first deployment until the present day) 28. Can you provide any further
details of the nature of the force detailed in the reports? If so, what
force was used against protesters?

29. What equipment are officers permitted to use in the course of their
policing at the site/s (i.e. batons, cuffs, spray, etc.)?

30. How often has Derbyshire Constabulary had cause to use any of that
equipment, and what specifically, since first deployment at the site/s and
the date of this request?

31. Are officers been given any specific training before being deployed on
the site/s for the first time?

32. If so, what is the training?

33. If no, why not?

 

Training and guidelines

 

34. Does Derbyshire Constabulary have any specific guidelines relating to
the policing of protests at the site/s - particularly relating to 'slow
walking' protests?

35. If so, what are those guidelines and how were they communicated to
protesters?

36. Is there a record of the number of times protesters broke those
guidelines and what action was taken?

37. If yes, please provide those details.

 

Your request will now be considered in accordance with the Freedom of
Information Act 2000 (the Act). You should expect to receive a response
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Yours sincerely

 

Christine South

Disclosure Officer

Freedom of Information Unit 

Information Management Section

Corporate Services

Derbyshire Constabulary, Butterley Hall, Ripley, Derbyshire DE5 3RS

Tel: 0300 122 8752 Email: [1][email address]

Website: [2]www.derbyshire.police.uk

 

 

 

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References

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1. mailto:[email address]
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Freedom of Information Office, Derbyshire Constabulary

2 Attachments

Mr Ward

 

Thank you for making a Freedom of Information request to the Derbyshire
Constabulary.

 

Please find attached our response.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

 

Kevin Lea

Freedom of Information Officer

Business Futures, Derbyshire Constabulary, Police Headquarters, Butterley
Hall, Ripley, Derbyshire.  DE5 3RS

Tel: 101   Direct Dial: 0300 122 5487 

Email: [1][email address]

Web: [2]http://www.derbyshire.police.uk

Dear Derbyshire Constabulary,

Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.

I am writing to request an internal review of Derbyshire Constabulary's handling of my FOI request 'The policing of fracking and fossil fuel extraction/exploration activities in your constabulary'.

Please clarify why you claim to have no information when there are cases involving Derbyshire Police attending fracking/drilling demos in the public domain? E.g. http://www.derbytelegraph.co.uk/news/loc...

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/t...

Yours faithfully,

Liam Ward

Freedom of Information Office, Derbyshire Constabulary

Mr Ward

 

Thank you for your email concerning the above.

 

With reference to your request you may recall that I spoke to you via
telephone on Tuesday 22 August 2017 in order to discuss with particular
emphasis on Q1.  The issue I sought clarification on revolved around
whether or not the request was predicated on our response to this question
being ‘Yes’ as all others seemed to follow on from this. 

 

Within our discussion I stated that at that time as there had been no
licences granted within the County if the response to the above was ‘Yes’
our position had to be ‘no information held’; a view you agreed with hence
our response.  As a consequence an internal review isn’t appropriate and
so won’t be conducted. 

 

To date no license has been issued within the County so our position
remains the same.  We do have issues with protests over the issue of
fracking more generally (as evidenced by the video attached to your email)
and details of these can be accessed via the below link:

 

[1]http://www.derbyshire.police.uk/About-us...

 

As previous I am more than happy to discuss the issues with you should you
wish to call me.  

 

Kevin Lea

Freedom of Information Officer

Business Futures, Derbyshire Constabulary, Police Headquarters, Butterley
Hall, Ripley, Derbyshire.  DE5 3RS

Tel: 101   Direct Dial: 0300 122 5487 

Email: [2][email address]

Web: [3]http://www.derbyshire.police.uk

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