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Crime levels during fox hunting season

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Dear Cheshire Constabulary,

Please provide an overview of how many of the following crimes were reported in 2019/20 Hunt season involving the Cheshire Hounds Hunt ...

How many incidents were reported from the Cheshire Hounds Hunt and their followers?

How many incidents were reported by the ‘antis’?

Please advise us how many incidents were reported for each of the below;
Aggravated trespass
Criminal damage
Assault
Harassment/public order
Theft
Traffic
Hunting
Badger sett blocking

What was the outcome of these complaints?

Yours faithfully,
Cheshire Against Blood Sports

Freedom of Information, Cheshire Constabulary

Dear Sir/Madam

I acknowledge receipt of your correspondence received 09/05/2020 which is
being dealt with as a request for information in accordance with the
Freedom of Information Act 2000.
I am in the process of dealing with your request and will respond in due
course and in any case by 08/06/2020.

Please note that you will not receive a response if you have previously
been issued with a notice under section 14 of the act relating to the
subject of this request.

Please contact us by email at [1][email address] if you
have any further enquiries.

Regards

The Requests Team
Information Compliance
Cheshire Constabulary HQ
Clemonds Hey
Oakmere Road
Winsford
Cheshire
CW7 2UA

Tel :: 01606 362384

This communication is intended for the addressee(s) only. Please notify
the sender if received in error. Internet email is not to be treated as a
secure means of communication. The Constabulary monitors all Internet and
email activity and requires it is used for official communications only.
Thank you for your co-operation.

References

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1. mailto:[email address]

Requests, Cheshire Constabulary

2 Attachments

Dear A Jones,

 

Please see attached response to your request made under the Freedom of
Information Act.

 

If you are not satisfied with the decision applied in this case I enclose
for your attention a copy of the Constabulary's appeal procedures.

 

Regards,

 

Lucy Taylor – Request Decision Maker

Cheshire Constabulary and Cheshire Fire & Rescue Service Joint Corporate
Services

Follow [1]@cheshirepolice and @CheshireFire on Twitter

Like [2]Cheshire Police and Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service on Facebook

 

This communication is intended for the addressee(s) only. Please notify
the sender if received in error. Internet email is not to be treated as a
secure means of communication. The Constabulary monitors all Internet and
email activity and requires it is used for official communications only.
Thank you for your co-operation.

References

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1. http://www.twitter.com/cheshirepolice
2. http://www.facebook.com/cheshirepolice

Dear Cheshire Constabulary,

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

I am writing to request an internal review of Cheshire Constabulary's handling of my FOI request 'Crime levels during fox hunting season'.

I have now become aware that Cheshire Constabulary have an operation relating to hunting activities.
Operation Swiftness operates during exercising of the hounds and the hunting season November to March. I believe my request relates to some of the policing of this Operation. As the Police must be measuring effectiveness of Operations details maybe easier find than a general search on the central database.

Your refusal is based off staff conducting a manual search reading through every incident report. As incident reports are stored digital why can’t you conduct a computerised automatic search based off keywords?

We are in possession of a similar request from Leicestershire Police under the name of Operation Blackthorn which covers several hunts not just a single hunt.

Therefore we request that our appeal for this information is upheld.

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

Yours faithfully,

Amy Jones

Freedom of Information, Cheshire Constabulary

Dear Sir/Madam

Thank you for your email dated in which you express dissatisfaction
with our response to your request under the Freedom of Information Act
2000.

In view of your comments your request has been forwarded to our
independent appeals/reviewing officer, who has been appointed by the
Authority. In accordance with our current policy, in line with
the guidance from the Information Commissioner we aim to provide
a response to you within 20 working days.

If you require any further information you may contact me, details below.

Regards

Freedom of Information Officer
Information Compliance
Cheshire Constabulary HQ
Clemonds Hey
Oakmere Road
Winsford
Cheshire
CW7 2UA

Tel :: 01606 366556

This communication is intended for the addressee(s) only. Please notify
the sender if received in error. Internet email is not to be treated as a
secure means of communication. The Constabulary monitors all Internet and
email activity and requires it is used for official communications only.
Thank you for your co-operation.

Requests, Cheshire Constabulary

2 Attachments

Dear Ms Jones

 

Please accept my sincere apologies for the delay in responding to your
internal review due to the current circumstances this has been
overlooked.  However, I am writing in response to your email dated 4th
June 2020 requesting an independent appeal against the decision made in
relation to your request for information under the Freedom of Information
Act 2000.

Your original request

Please provide an overview of how many of the following crimes were
reported in 2019/20 Hunt season involving the Cheshire Hounds Hunt ...

 How many incidents were reported from the Cheshire Hounds Hunt and their
followers?

 How many incidents were reported by the 'antis'?

 Please advise us how many incidents were reported for each of the below;
Aggravated trespass Criminal damage Assault Harassment/public order Theft
Traffic Hunting Badger sett blocking

 What was the outcome of these complaints?
The Constabulary’s original response

 

Section 1 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) places two duties
on public authorities.

Unless exemptions apply, the first duty at s1(1)(a) is to confirm or deny
whether the information

specified in a request is held. The second duty at s1(1)(b) is to disclose
information that has been

confirmed as being held. Where exemptions are relied upon Section 17 of
the FOIA requires that we

provide the applicant with a notice which: a) states that fact; b)
specifies the exemptions in question

and c) state (if that would not otherwise be apparent) why the
exemption(s) applies.

From our preliminary assessment we are unable to provide this as it would
exceed the appropriate

costs limit under section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000. This
is currently £450. The basis

for this calculation is the cost of retrieving the data to answer your
questions

To obtain the relevant information relating to the above request we would
need to read through every

incident of all crime types to establish if reference was made to
‘Cheshire Hounds Hunt’. For the

2019/20 financial year there were over 9,900 criminal damage offences
alone. It would take one

member of staff approximately 5 minutes per record equating to in excess
of 825 hours of work for

criminal damage offence alone. To the conduct further searches on
harassment offences, public order

offences etc… would significantly increase the time require to locate this
information. Your entire

request is therefore refused.

 

The appropriate limit is defined in the Data Protection and Freedom of
Information (Fees and

Appropriate Limit) Regulations 2004, which is covered by statutory
Instrument Number 3244 of 2004.

Furthermore, Section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 allows a
public authority to refuse to

respond to a request for information where the cost of compliance would
exceed the appropriate limit

as defined by the above mentioned regulations.

 

Unfortunately on this occasion I am unable to assist you in redefining
your request to provide any

meaningful information, this is because to establish if the reported crime
involved the Cheshire

Hounds Hunt would require a manual review.

 

Your response

 

I have now become aware that Cheshire Constabulary have an operation
relating to hunting activities.

Operation Swiftness operates during exercising of the hounds and the
hunting season November to March. I believe my request relates to some of
the policing of this Operation. As the Police must be measuring
effectiveness of Operations details maybe easier find than a general
search on the central database.

 

Your refusal is based off staff conducting a manual search reading through
every incident report. As incident reports are stored digital why can’t
you conduct a computerised automatic search based off keywords?

 

We are in possession of a similar request from Leicestershire Police under
the name of Operation Blackthorn which covers several hunts not just a
single hunt.

 

Therefore we request that our appeal for this information is upheld.

The Constabulary’s response to your appeal

 

The appeal process is to review the original request and the process
undertaken to achieve the disclosure. I can confirm that I have fully
reviewed and revisited your original request and the initial response sent
to you, your appeal is not upheld on this occasion, however I believe you
should have been given an opportunity to redefine your request to a more
manageable level under Section 16 of the act the duty to provide advice
and assistance.  Therefore, if you wish to redefine your request to the
dates of the hunting season (or particular dates) we may then conduct a
free text search of “Cheshire Hounds Hunt” on both our crime recording
system and incident system to establish if and where recorded related to
the above free text search. This should reduce the number of crimes and
incidents that are returned that would require a read through to ensure
they related to your request.  Should you decide to go ahead then please
do so at your earliest convenience and we will endeavour to respond as
soon as possible. 

 

 

Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, you have further recourse for
appeal, if required, to the Information Commissioner. Information can be
obtained about the appeal procedure from:

 

The Information Commissioner

Information Commissioner’s Office

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire

SK8 5AF

 

Regards

 

 

Sarah Davies

Information Officer

Joint Corporate Services  | Cheshire Constabulary  | Police HQ | Clemonds
Hey | Winsford | Cheshire | CW7 2UA | Phone: 01606 366556 |  Email:
[1][email address]

Visit [2]www.cheshire.police.uk | Follow [3]@cheshirepolice on Twitter |
Like [4]Cheshire Police on Facebook

[5]logo[6]cid:image001.jpg@01D24FB5.8237DE20

 

 

This communication is intended for the addressee(s) only. Please notify
the sender if received in error. Internet email is not to be treated as a
secure means of communication. The Constabulary monitors all Internet and
email activity and requires it is used for official communications only.
Thank you for your co-operation.

References

Visible links
1. mailto:[email address]
2. http://www.cheshire.police.uk/
3. http://www.twitter.com/cheshirepolice
4. http://www.facebook.com/cheshirepolice

We don't know whether the most recent response to this request contains information or not – if you are Amy Jones please sign in and let everyone know.