Kerb-crawling and soliciting arrests/convictions
Dear South Yorkshire Police,
I am writing to make an open government request for all the information to which I am entitled under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.
Would you be able to respond with the following information:
1) What is the number of arrests and convictions that your force holds for the following two offences over the last ten years? (2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017.)
A) Arrests for kerb-crawling each year and fines or convictions, giving the amount fined in each case if possible and the nature of the conviction.
B) Soliciting (selling) prostitution in public, giving exact number of arrests per year, as well as exactly what was the charge and conviction was (e.g. what exact sentence or fine the offence resulted in.)
If this request is too wide or unclear, I would be grateful if you could contact me as I understand that under the Act, you are required to advise and assist requesters. If any of this information is already in the public domain, please can you direct me to it, with page references and URLs if necessary.
If the release of any of this information is prohibited on the grounds of breach of confidence, I ask that you supply me with copies of the confidentiality agreement and remind you that information should not be treated as confidential if such an agreement has not been signed.
I understand that you are required to respond to my request within the 20 working days after you receive this letter. I would be grateful if you could confirm in writing that you have received this request.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Yours faithfully,
Phoebe
Dear Phoebe
Section 8(1)(b) indicates that the real name of an applicant should be used when requesting information. You have only provided your first name.
The ICO guidance is quite clear and states it is the intention of the legislation that an applicant should provide their real name so that the request can be processed in accordance with the requirement of the FOI Act, see below link:
http://ico.org.uk/for_organisations/guid...
In order for us to proceed, please can you confirm your full name. In the meantime, your request will be 'stopped' on our database until this is received.
Many thanks
Lucy Moore
South Yorkshire Police
Information Compliance Unit
Performance & Governance
Unit 20
Churchill Way
Sheffield
S35 2PY
T: 0114 2921788 (ext: 711788)
Website address - southyorks.police.uk
Dear FOI,
Following up on my previous email, I would like to confirm that my surname is Cooke - I believe you require this information to proceed.
Yours sincerely,
Phoebe Cooke
Dear Ms Cooke
Re your request (reference number above):
1) What is the number of arrests and convictions that your force holds for
the following two offences over the last ten years? (2008, 2009, 2010,
2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017.)
A) Arrests for kerb-crawling each year and fines or convictions, giving
the amount fined in each case if possible and the nature of the
conviction.
B) Soliciting (selling) prostitution in public, giving exact number of
arrests per year, as well as exactly what was the charge and conviction
was (e.g. what exact sentence or fine the offence resulted in.)
Please could you clarify the following point(s): -
· We are unable provide you with conviction data – this
information may be held by the Ministry of Justice.
· We can provide you with arrest disposals such as charged to
court, bailed, released under investigation, no further action etc.
· We are presently unable to provide you with arrest data beyond
December 4^th 2017 due to data extraction difficulties
Please forward your clarification to South Yorkshire Police as this
request will be ‘stopped’ on our database until this has been received.
Once we have received clarification, your request be considered and 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 South
Yorkshire Police may be unable to achieve this deadline. If this is likely
you will be informed and given a revised time-scale at the earliest
opportunity.
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 a payment then your request will
remain unanswered.
Some requests may also require either full 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.
Yours sincerely
Lucy Moore
South Yorkshire Police
Information Compliance Unit
Professional Standards Department
Unit 20 Sheffield 35A Business Park
Churchill Way
Sheffield
S35 2PY
Email - [South Yorkshire Police request email]
To find out who your local Safer Neighbourhood Team officer is, how to
contact them, and to find out what’s happening in your area enter your
postcode at http://neighbourhood.southyorks.police.uk
South Yorkshire Police provides you the right to request a re-examination
of your case under its review procedure (copy enclosed). If you decide to
request such a review and having followed the Constabulary’s full process
you are still dissatisfied, then you have the right to direct your
comments to the Information Commissioner who will give it consideration.
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Dear FOI,
Thank you for your response.
I understand you cannot provide data about conviction, and would ask that you go ahead with providing information regarding arrest disposals as you mentioned.
On your other point about data extraction, I would only ask that you provide me with any of the information that is possible to give me. If that only reaches as far as December 4th, 2017, I will have to be satisfied with that.
Yours Sincerely,
Phoebe Cooke
Dear FOI,
Thanks very much for your response.
I understand you cannot provide conviction data, but am still interested in obtaining information about arrest disposals as you mention.
That's fine that we cannot get the data after December 4, 2017 - could we proceed with the rest of the FOI?
Are you able to reply to let me know that you are going ahead with providing the rest of the data?
Yours sincerely,
Phoebe
Dear Ms Cooke
Please find attached our response to your Freedom of Information request.
Regards
Lucy Moore
South Yorkshire Police
Information Compliance Unit
Professional Standards Department
Unit 20 Sheffield 35A Business Park
Churchill Way
Sheffield
S35 2PY
Email - [South Yorkshire Police request email]
SYP Alerts offers information about local policing issues by text, email
or voice message. Sign-up now at www.sypalerts.co.uk #SignMeUp
Dear South Yorkshire Police,
Thank you for your response. Please may I ask a few questions regarding the data?
1) Can you explain to me what it means that no data was "returned" after 2014? Is that because police made no arrests since that time? Or does it mean that they weren't recorded? It would be important to know what was meant.
2) Are you able to take another look at the table you presented me with? There are a number of repetitions on the spreadsheet with the same or virtually the same wording (soliciting, soliciting for prostitution is repeated 4 times, various forms of loitering are repeated.)
It looks like there has been an error in how the data is presented, making me unsure if the overall data is accurate. Not sure why you would need more than one box for 'loitering for prostitution' for example or four for 'soliciting for prostitution'?
Please could you look into this and get back to me.
Yours sincerely,
Phoebe
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