Managing Detainees Suspected of Swallowing Drugs.

The request was refused by Cambridgeshire Constabulary.

Dear Cambridgeshire Constabulary,

Could you please release:

1. The force's policy and guidance on the subject of managing detainees suspected of swallowing drugs.

2. The force's protocol agreement with hospital and ambulance staff, on managing detainees suspected of swallowing drugs.

3. Any reports / statistical information prepared on the operation of the force's policies on managing detainees suspected of swallowing drugs, from 2013, 2014 and 2015. I suspect such information may have been prepared for internal committees, the IPCC or the Police and Crime Commissioner.

4. For each of those detained for an extended period as a result of being suspected of swallowing drugs during 2013, 2014 and 2015: the date of detention (year and month is sufficient), total length of detention, location(s) of the detention, and brief details of the relevant powers, court appearances, court orders under which the detention was, or was thought to be, authorised.

In the event part 4 cannot be answered within the cost limit please provide advice and assistance on narrowing the request down; and provide a response to the other elements.

Regards,

--

Richard Taylor
Cambridge
http://www.rtaylor.co.uk

Richard Taylor left an annotation ()

Background to this request can be found at:

http://www.rtaylor.co.uk/3-poo-custody-d...

Freedom of Information,

Dear Richard

 

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST REFERENCE NO: 0280/2015

 

We acknowledge receipt of your Freedom of Information (FOI) request which
was received by Cambridgeshire Constabulary on 23/03/2015

 

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 twenty working days as defined by the Act. In some
circumstances, we may be unable to achieve this deadline. If this is the
case, you will be informed and given a revised time-scale at the earliest
opportunity.

 

If we require any further clarification regarding this request, you will
be notified.

 

We would advise you that the nature of certain requests may involve
payment of a fee.  If this is the case, you will be notified.

 

Should you have any further enquiries concerning this matter, please
telephone on 01480 456 111 asking for the Information Access Office or
email [Cambridgeshire Constabulary request email]

 

Regards

 

Julie Purse

Information Access Office

Cambridgeshire Constabulary

 

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Freedom of Information,

1 Attachment

Dear Richard

 

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST REFERENCE NO: 0280/15

 

In reply to your request for information under the Freedom of Information
Act 2000, received 23/03/15.

 

The Freedom of Information Act 2000 (The Act) requires us to handle all
requests in a manner that is blind to the identity of the requestor.  Any
information released in response to a request is regarded as being
published, and therefore in the public domain without caveat.

 

Request

 

Could you please release:

 

1. The force's policy and guidance on the subject of managing detainees
suspected of swallowing drugs.

 

2. The force's protocol agreement with hospital and ambulance staff, on
managing detainees suspected of swallowing drugs.

 

3. Any reports / statistical information prepared on the operation of the
force's policies on managing detainees suspected of swallowing drugs, from
2013, 2014 and 2015. I suspect such information may have been prepared for
internal committees, the IPCC or the Police and Crime Commissioner.

 

4. For each of those detained for an extended period as a result of being
suspected of swallowing drugs during 2013, 2014 and 2015: the date of
detention (year and month is sufficient), total length of detention,
location(s) of the detention, and brief details of the relevant powers,
court appearances, court orders under which the detention was, or was
thought to be, authorised.

 

In the event part 4 cannot be answered within the cost limit please
provide advice and assistance on narrowing the request down; and provide a
response to the other elements.

 

We have completed all searches within Cambridgeshire Constabulary and
hereby enclose your response.

 

Response

 

Section 12(1) of the Freedom of Information Act states that a public
authority is not obliged to comply with a request for information if the
authority estimates that the cost of complying with the request would
exceed 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.

 

It is estimated that it will take a minimum of 94 hours at a cost of £25
an hour to view 1881 records to provide an answer to this request which is
above the 18 hour cost limit. This is due to the fact that every custody
record with a drugs offence would need to be manually reviewed to identify
if the detained person was suspected of swallowing drugs.

 

If you are unhappy with this response, please see the attachment, which
sets out your rights to appeal.

 

Should you have any further enquiries concerning this matter, please
contact the Information Access Office via email, or on telephone number
01480 456 111 extension 2034.

 

Regards

 

Donna Milton

Information Access Office

Cambridgeshire Constabulary

 

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Dear Cambridgeshire Constabulary,

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

I am writing to request an internal review of Cambridgeshire Constabulary's handling of my FOI request 'Managing Detainees Suspected of Swallowing Drugs.'.

I would like the internal review to consider:

* That I asked for a response to parts 1-3 to my request even if part 4 could not be responded to within the cost limit.

* Why the response states: "every custody record with a drugs offence would need to be manually reviewed to identify if the detained person was suspected of swallowing drugs" when my request only pertained to those individuals "detained for an extended period as a result of being suspected of swallowing drugs".

I would have expected the majority of cases relevant to my request would already have been identified for the purposes of monitoring the implementation of the force's policies in this area and in connection with the 2015 IPCC investigation which resulted in recommendations in this area.

I also understand that the cases which are the subject of my request would have required a non-routine consideration in the magistrates' court which I would have expected to have generated records enabling the cases in question to be easily identified.

The response does not explain why the custody records identified in relation to drug offences cannot be then be narrowed down rapidly on the basis of the duration of detention to identify those where detention has been for an extended period.

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

--

Richard Taylor
Cambridge
http://www.rtaylor.co.uk

Freedom of Information,

Dear Richard

 

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST REFERENCE NO: 0280/15

 

We acknowledge receipt of your request for an Internal Review of our
response to you dated 08/04/15.

 

Your request asked for information about detainees suspected of swallowing
drugs.

 

Your appeal will now be considered, you will be notified of the outcome of
this appeal in writing by the week ending 15^th May 2015.

 

Should you have any further enquiries concerning this matter, please
telephone on 01480 456111 asking for the Information Access Office or
email [Cambridgeshire Constabulary request email]

 

Regards

 

Donna Milton

Information Access Office

Cambridgeshire Constabulary

 

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

To visit Cambridgeshire Constabulary's website please follow this link:

http://www.cambs-police.co.uk/index.asp

show quoted sections

Freedom of Information,

Dear Mr Taylor

 

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST REFERENCE NO: 0280/2015

 

An independent review of the response given to you in respect of your
Freedom of Information (FOI) request has been concluded.  Your original
request asked for information in respect of:

 

Could you please release:

 

1. The force's policy and guidance on the subject of managing detainees
suspected of swallowing drugs.

 

2. The force's protocol agreement with hospital and ambulance staff, on
managing detainees suspected of swallowing drugs.

 

3. Any reports / statistical information prepared on the operation of the
force's policies on managing detainees suspected of swallowing drugs, from
2013, 2014 and 2015. I suspect such information may have been prepared for
internal committees, the IPCC or the Police and Crime Commissioner.

 

4. For each of those detained for an extended period as a result of being
suspected of swallowing drugs during 2013, 2014 and 2015: the date of
detention (year and month is sufficient), total length of detention,
location(s) of the detention, and brief details of the relevant powers,
court appearances, court orders under which the detention was, or was
thought to be, authorised.

 

In the event part 4 cannot be answered within the cost limit please
provide advice and assistance on narrowing the request down; and provide a
response to the other elements.

 

I have considered your appeal against the decision made by the Information
Access Officer on 23/03/15 in which he refused to provide information on
the basis of the following exemption(s):

 

·        Section 12(1) Excess Cost

 

Having considered all the available information, I am of the view that the
above exemption was correctly applied on this occasion.  Therefore the
original decision made is upheld. 

 

When section 12 is engaged it applies to the whole of the request and does
not provide for the use of further exemptions at that point in time.

 

However under Section 16 duty to advise and assist, I suggest that you
submit a further FOI request in relation to questions 1 to 3 in order that
they can be fully considered.

 

Please find attached a copy of the complaints procedure should you wish to
complain to the Information Commissioner.

 

Yours sincerely

 

 

Kathleen Love

Information Access Supervisor

Cambridgeshire Constabulary
COMPLAINT RIGHTS

 

 

The Information Commissioner

 

After lodging a complaint with Cambridgeshire Constabulary, if you are
still dissatisfied with the decision you may make an application to the
Information Commissioner for a decision on whether the request for
information has been dealt with in accordance with the requirements of the
Act.

 

For information on how to make application to the Information Commissioner
please visit their website at [1]www.informationcommissioner.gov.uk. 
Alternatively, phone or write to:

 

Information Commissioner's Office

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire

SK9 5AF

 

Phone:  01625 545 700

 

 

 

 

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References

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