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Drone statistics

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Dear West Mercia Police,

I am a student in my final year at Staffordshire University studying Forensic Computing. For my final year project I am investigating the forensic integrity of drone gathered surveillance, as part of this project I am researching the use of drones within UK Police forces.
Please can you provide me with the following information?

1. How many incidents have been reported involving the use drones for each of the following years:-
a. April 2015 to March 2016
b. April 2016 to March 2017
c. April 2017 to March 2018

2. How many reported incidents involving the use of drones have led to a prosecution for each of the following years:-
a. April 2015 to March 2016
b. April 2016 to March 2017
c. April 2017 to March 2018

3. How many drones does your police force own or operate?

4. For what purposes does your police force use drones?

5. What are the titles and last revision date of your documented policies and/or operating procedures in the use of drones for Police investigations?

6. What are your Police force’s plans for the use of drones in surveillance work?

Yours faithfully,

Daniel Levens

@ Freedom of Information,

 

Dear Mr. Levens

Thank you for your request below, received by Warwickshire Police and West
Mercia Police on 25 March 2018.

I am a student in my final year at Staffordshire University studying
Forensic Computing. For my final year project I am investigating the
forensic integrity of drone gathered surveillance, as part of this project
I am researching the use of drones within UK Police forces.

Please can you provide me with the following information?

 

1. How many incidents have been reported involving the use drones for each
of the following years:- a. April 2015 to March 2016 b. April 2016 to
March 2017 c. April 2017 to March 2018

 

2. How many reported incidents involving the use of drones have led to a
prosecution for each of the following years:- a. April 2015 to March 2016
b. April 2016 to March 2017 c. April 2017 to March 2018

 

3. How many drones does your police force own or operate?

 

4. For what purposes does your police force use drones?

 

5. What are the titles and last revision date of your documented policies
and/or operating procedures in the use of drones for Police
investigations?

 

6. What are your Police force’s plans for the use of drones in
surveillance work?

Your request will now be considered in accordance with the Freedom of
Information Act 2000.  You will receive a response within the statutory
timescale of 20 working days as defined by the Act, subject to the
information not being exempt or containing a reference to a third party. 
In some circumstances we may be unable to achieve this deadline.  If this
is likely you will be informed and given a revised timescale at the
earliest opportunity.

In some cases there may be a fee payable for the retrieval, collation and
provision of the information you request.  If this is the case you will be
informed and the 20 working day timescale will be suspended until we
receive payment from you. If you choose not to make payment then your
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or partial transference to another public authority in order to answer
your query in the fullest possible way. Again, you will be informed if
this is the case.

Should you have any further enquiries concerning this matter, please do
not hesitate to contact this office.

Yours sincerely

 

Information Compliance
Warwickshire Police

[1]Putting Victims FirstPutting Victims First
Warwickshire Police and West Mercia Police are committed to providing the
best possible service to our communities and putting victims at the heart
of everything we do.

For information on services and support given to our victims by us and our
criminal justice partners visit our websites:

Warwickshire Police: [2]www.warwickshire.police.uk/puttingvictimsfirst
West Mercia Police: [3]www.westmercia.police.uk/puttingvictimsfirst

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Dear @ Freedom of Information,

RE: FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT 2000 - REQUEST FOR INFORMATION
Drone Statistics dated 25/03/2018

Thank you for your acknowledgement to my FOI request of the 25 March 2018 for which I should have received a response by 25/04/2018.

As this has been delayed and the successful completion of my project is dependent on this information, I shall be grateful if you will advise when the information requested will be forwarded to me.

Your assistance with this matter is greatly appreciated

Yours Faithfully
Daniel Levens

@ Freedom of Information,

Dear Mr Levens,

RE: Freedom of Information requests: Warwickshire 2018-00262 & West Mercia 9490/18

Thank you for your email below. I apologise sincerely for the delay in responding to your requests for information. Unfortunately we are still waiting for one of the departments to provide some information and they have advised us that they are struggling with workload due to staffing issues. In the meantime the information that I can provide is detailed below:

The partial response for the Alliance - (Warwickshire Police & West Mercia Police)

Q3. How many drones does your police force own or operate?

Response Q3:
The Alliance has two UAV

Q4. For what purposes does your police force use drones?

Response Q4:
The forces have used drones for: Search activity, including missing persons, cannabis farms, suspects who are at large. The forces have also used them for aerial photography to capture evidence of serious road traffic collisions, crime scenes and to provide reconnaissance for policing operations.

Q5. What are the titles and last revision date of your documented policies and/or operating procedures in the use of drones for Police investigations?

Response Q5:
Feb 2018. Titled West Mercia and Warwickshire Police Alliance Operations Manual version 1.4. This is available from the CAA (Civil Aviation Authority) it is our standard operating procedures. We also have emergency exemptions also available from the CAA.
 
I am sorry that we are not yet able to provide a full response to your request. I can assure you that every effort is being made to the remainder of your request as soon as is possible.

Yours sincerely

Sabina Harris
Information Compliance Officer
Tel: 01788 853864 (internal 3864)
Fax: 01788 953781
Email: [email address]

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@ Freedom of Information,

Dear Mr Levens,

Further to my email below, I am pleased to advise you that the searches for information relevant to Q1. and Q2. of your request have now been completed.

Searches of the Warwickshire Police and West Mercia Police systems were made for all incidents containing the words "drone", "UAV" or "Unmanned a". This search picks up all incidents with the specified words anywhere in the incident narrative as well as the incident details summary. The initial dataset brought back from this query, based on the time period 1st April 2015 to 31st March 2018 was over 1200 records for West Mercia and 191 records for Warwickshire . Due to the volume of records returned and the amount of time already spent on these requests it was not possible to read through each one to remove false positives as taking an average time of around 2 mins to review the detail and narrative of each of the 1200 West Mercia records would take around 40 hours and the Warwickshire 191 records a further 6.36 hours. This would involve a disproportionate amount of effort which would take both requests over the "appropriate limit". For Police forces in the UK, the "appropriate limit" is considered to be up to 18 hours of work on one request. This information is given in the Freedom of Information (Fees and Appropriate Limit) Regulations 2004.

In accordance with Section 12(1) of the Freedom of Information Act, 2000, please treat this letter as the Refusal Notice I am required to provide to you.

In accordance with Section 16 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, I have a duty to provide advice and assistance and, on this basis, an analysts have advised that some information may be available within the fees limit.

By reviewing the incident detail summary only rather than the whole text of each incident would enable us to provide an approximation of how many incidents occurred in each year. These would include drones flown over prisons, where people have complained about drones, stolen drones and informative messages of public drone flying. Please advise me in writing if you wish to receive this limited information.

Yours sincerely,

Sabina Harris
Information Compliance Officer
Tel: 01788 853864 (internal 3864)
Fax: 01788 953781
Email: [email address]

Not protectively marked

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