Councils, Departments or Professionals within essex reported for alleged crime

The request was refused by Essex Police.

Dear Essex Police,

This FOI relates to a you tube video, link below, on Thurrock council being reported for fraud

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTKlopwE...

Under the FOI act please can you tell me what councils within Essex have been reported for any illegal or alleged criminal activity within the last 3 years (i.e fiddling with money, falsifying parking tickets etc) - if you can go back more than 3 years all the better.

Please can you break it down to the following:
1. Each council that has been reported to police (if any)

Under each Council, please list the following:

2. What Department was reported (if it was an entire department that committed an offense)

3. Individual(s) professional reported (if any)- no names needs to be given just the department they worked in (acted solely without their departments knowledge)

4. Crime alleged

5. Was a police Investigation carried out (Yes or No) and if so the outcome of investigation and action taken. If no please state reasons why.

6. Who reported the alleged crime, (i.e service user, another professional, another council etc)

*This request relates to incidents directly related to councils - i am not interested in a professional that committed a crime within his or her own private time away from work but a person or department that committed a crime or attempted to commit a crime using their council resources - i.e falsifying parking tickets or fiddling with council money,(like in the video the figures did not tally)

Thank you

Yours faithfully,

Ms Sandra Clay

data foi, Essex Police

Thank you for your enquiry which has been logged under the above
reference.

Under the Freedom of Information Act we are required to reply within 20
working days but given the current very high number of requests being
received this may not be possible.

We will reply as soon as possible and please accept our apologies for the
inconvenience any delay may cause.

 

Kind regards,

Laura Mills

Information Officer

Data Protection & Freedom of Information

Strategic Change Management Department

Essex Police HQ

PO Box 2

Springfield, Chelmsford

Essex CM2 6DA

Tel: 101 - Ext: 150028

Fax: 01245 452256 - Int Fax : 150045

Working hours: Monday & Thursday 07:45 to 18:00

 

 

show quoted sections

Nigel Amos,

1 Attachment

Dear Ms. Clay

 

I am writing in response to your recent FOI request concerning allegations
made against council staff.  Firstly I apologise for the delay in
response.  This unit is responsible for dealing with a range of
information queries and we have recently experienced a substantial rise in
the number of requests received which has resulted in some delays.  You
requested information as follows -

 

Under the FOI act please can you tell me what councils within Essex have
been reported for any illegal or alleged criminal activity within the last
3 years (i.e fiddling with money, falsifying parking tickets etc) - if you
can go back more than 3 years all the better.

    

     Please can you break it down to the following:

     1. Each council that has been reported to police (if any)

    

     Under each Council, please list the following:

    

     2. What Department was reported (if it was an entire department that
committed an offense)

    

     3. Individual(s) professional reported (if any)- no names needs to be
given just the department they worked in (acted solely without their
departments knowledge)

    

     4. Crime alleged

    

     5. Was a police Investigation carried out (Yes or No) and if so the
outcome of investigation and action taken. If no please state reasons why.

    

     6. Who reported the alleged crime, (i.e service user, another
professional, another council etc)

    

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(1) 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.

In this instance, to determine whether or not Essex Police even hold the
information as specified in your request would require the manual
examination of a very high number of records, simply in order to ascertain
whether the information as held.  Such an exercise would extend beyond the
reasonable amount that a public authority is required to expend in
responding to a request under the Freedom of Information Act, as set out
in the Data Protection and Freedom of Information (Fees and appropriate
Limit) Regulations 2004, which currently stands at £450 or eighteen hours.

 

To explain further, Essex Police systems are designed primarily for the
management of individual cases and not primarily for the production of
statistical information.  While reporting tools can be used to extract
some information via database queries, the information that be retrieved
by such means is quite limited.  Information is often entered onto systems
via free-text entry fields, which may be non-searchable using database
queries, or because of the nature of free text entry, may result in
information being produced that is subject to a high degree of
inaccuracy. 

 

We are unclear as to how an organisation such as a council could be
reported for a recordable offence.  Most allegations would have to be
directed at an individual associated with the council in question.  Essex
Police would not be able to search all arrest records or crime reports to
determine whether or not a suspect or offender was a council employee, or
whether they were acting in a private or official capacity when an offence
was committed.. 

 

Consequently, and by virtue of the exception at section 12(2) of the FOI
Act 2000, Essex Police are exempt from the duty to comply with section
1(1)(a) of the FOI Act  as follows-

 

12 - Exemption where cost of compliance exceeds appropriate limit.

(1) Section 1(1) does not oblige a public authority to comply with a
request for information if the authority estimates that the cost of
complying with the request would exceed the appropriate limit.

(2) Subsection (1) does not exempt the public authority from its
obligation to comply with paragraph (a) of section 1(1) unless the
estimated cost of complying with that paragraph alone would exceed the
appropriate limit.

 

Therefore, and in accordance with section 17 of the Act, this
communication must act as a refusal notice to comply with section 1(1)(a)
of the FOI Act by confirming whether information is held or not.

Thank you for your interest in Essex Police.  If you have any further
queries regarding your request, or the application of the Freedom of
Information Act in general, please do not hesitate to contact the
Information Management Unit, who will be happy to assist.

If you are dissatisfied with the handling of your request, you have the
right to ask for an internal review. Internal review requests should be
submitted within two months of the date of receipt of the response to your
original request and should be addressed to the Senior Information Officer
at the above address or by email to: [1]data[Essex Police request email].  An
internal review will be undertaken to reconsider the handling of your
request. If your complaint refers to a decision to apply an exemption it
would assist the review if you would outline the reasons why you feel the
exemption does not apply.

Yours sincerely,

Nigel Amos
Senior Information Officer

Information Management, Strategic Change Management Department
Essex Police PO Box 2, Springfield, Chelmsford CM2 6DA

Direct dial: 101 ext. 150044
To find out what is happening in your neighbourhood and all about your
local neighbourhood policing team visit [2]www.essex.police.uk

 

References

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1. mailto:data[Essex Police request email]
mailto:data[Essex Police request email]
2. http://www.essex.police.uk/
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