Failure to action on a Hate Crime
Dear Avon and Somerset Constabulary,
Please provide figures for any cases where Sworn Officers or PCSOs have been flagged, dismissed or retrained due to failing in thier duty to follow up a hate crime as reported by the Victim.
If possible please catagorise as below
Missogynistic attack on a Single resident female.
Misandry attack on a Single resident Male.
To explain more my request.
If available please add to catagorise, how many of the victims lived alone.
Yours faithfully,
Julie Wall
Clarification
Legal Services Directorate
Force Headquarters, PO Box 37, Valley Road,
Portishead, Bristol, BS20 8QJ
Facsimile 01275 814667
Our 715-22
Reference
Date
5/7/22
Dear Julie Wall,
Thank you for your request which I have copied below. In order for us to
provide you with the information you require some clarification is
necessary.
Please provide figures for any cases where Sworn Officers or PCSOs have
been flagged, dismissed or retrained due to failing in thier duty to
follow up a hate crime as reported by the Victim.
If possible please catagorise as below
Missogynistic attack on a Single resident female.
Misandry attack on a Single resident Male.
To explain more my request.
If available please add to catagorise, how many of the victims lived
alone.
Please can you clarify what time frame you want us to search for example
1/1/2021 to 31/12/2021
I will be unable to start to process your request until I have received
your clarification. If your clarification is not received within 20
working days this request will be closed.
Yours sincerely,
Freedom of Information Disclosure Officer
[1]ASP-Email-Signature-258px-Nov2018
Dear #Freedom of Information Requests,
If you could please cover
From 9/7/2016
To 9/7/2022
Yours sincerely,
Julie Wall
Thank you for your clarification message. We will resume research of your questions.
Regards
Emma Price 8816
Disclosure Research Officer
Legal Services Directorate. | Avon and Somerset Police
www.avonandsomerset.police.uk | Follow us on Twitter and Facebook
Legal Services Directorate
Force Headquarters,
PO Box 37, Valley Road,
Portishead,
Bristol,
BS20 8QJ
Email [email address]
Julie Wall Our 715-22
Reference
[1][FOI #873395 email] Date 25
July
2022
Dear Julie Wall
Re: Request for information dated 24th May 2022 under the Freedom of
Information Act
I write in connection with your above request where you asked:
Please provide figures for any cases where Sworn Officers or PCSOs have
been flagged, dismissed or retrained due to failing in thier duty to
follow up a hate crime as reported by the Victim.
If possible please catagorise as below
Missogynistic attack on a Single resident female.
Misandry attack on a Single resident Male.
To explain more my request.
If available please add to catagorise, how many of the victims lived
alone.
Clarification received 09 July 2022:
If you could please cover From 9/7/2016 To 9/7/2022
Our response:
I regret to advise you that your request is refused under Section 12(2) of
the Act because we estimate that the cost of identifying whether we hold
the requested information would exceed the cost limits under the Act.
Section 12 makes provision for public authorities to refuse requests for
information where the cost of compliance would exceed the appropriate
limit, which for police authorities is set at £450 or 18 staff hours work.
This represents the estimated cost of one person spending 2.5 working days
in determining whether the department holds the information, locating,
retrieving and extracting it. This letter represents a Refusal Notice
under the Act.
This is because the information requested is not centrally recorded.
Complaints regarding officers or PCSOs matching the description within
your request would be recorded under the following IOPC categories:
A: Delivery of Duties and Service
A1 – Police Action following contact
A2 – Decisions
We do not have a sub-category within these to capture all occasions where
the decisions or police action in question relate specifically to a report
of a specific type of crime, such as a hate crime. In order to identify
all records within the scope of your request, it would therefore be
necessary to undertake a manual review of all potentially relevant cases
within these broader categories.
In order to narrow this down as far as possible, we have filtered out all
A1 and A2 cases with the below outcomes recorded – as these imply that no
flag, dismissal or retraining has been necessary (or that no decision has
been made as yet on this point):
- De-recorded
- No case to answer
- Withdrawn
- The service provided was acceptable
- ‘Blank’ (indicating no outcome has yet been recorded as the matter
is still live)
Having removed cases with the above outcomes, we are left with more than
800 records of A1 and A2 complaints for the period since 2020 alone. Each
one of these records would need to be manually reviewed to identify how
many resulted in officers or PCSOs being ‘flagged, dismissed or retrained
due to failing in their duty to follow up a hate crime as reported by the
victim.’ Further research would be necessary to identify whether the
victim of the hate crime in question was single. It is estimated that it
would take far in excess of 18 hours to comply.
It may also be worth explaining that complaints are recorded on a
different system than the crimes to which they may sometimes relate. Hate
crimes themselves are recorded on our crime recording system and
categorised by motivation (including gender), meaning it would be possible
to identify the number of gender motivated hate crimes on male/female
victims recorded in a given timeframe. However, the number of complaints
arising from specified actions or decisions made in relation to specified
types of crime is not recorded in such a way as to enable electronic
retrieval.
If it would be of use, we would be happy to consider a request either for
data relating to gender motivated hate crimes in the requested time
period, or the outcome of complaints recorded under categories A1 and A2
above. Unfortunately I am unable to suggest a way in which your request
could be refined that would enable us to provide an accurate response
regarding cases matching the specific description provided here.
Yours sincerely,
James Small
Information and Disclosure Officer
[2]www.avonandsomerset.police.uk | Follow us on [3]Twitter and
[4]Facebook
Please note:
1. Requests and responses may be published on the Avon and Somerset
Police website, some of which may contain a link to additional
information, which may provide you with further clarification.
2. Avon and Somerset Police provides you with the right to request a
re-examination of your case under its review procedure (copy attached).
Dear #Freedom of Information Requests,
Could you please calculate the full cost of the work as I belive there is the option for me to pay those costs.
Yours sincerely,
Julie Wall
Good Afternoon Julie Wall,
RE Freedom of Information response 715-22
There is nothing in Section 13 of the FOI Act that says we are obliged to provide the information for a fee.
Having engaged the section 12 exemption the section 1(1) (b) aspect duty to provide information does not apply.
I am sorry we cannot assist.
Regards
Emma Price 8816
Disclosure Research Officer
Legal Services Directorate. | Avon and Somerset Police
www.avonandsomerset.police.uk | Follow us on Twitter and Facebook
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