New powers to stop and search convicted knife carriers

J Roberts made this Freedom of Information request to West Midlands Police Automatic anti-spam measures are in place for this older request. Please let us know if a further response is expected or if you are having trouble responding.

The request was partially successful.

Dear West Midlands Police,

I seek information related to the following trial to cut knife crime:

'West Midlands Police is one of the four police forces taking part in the trial which begins tomorrow, Wednesday April 19, and also includes Sussex Police, Merseyside Police and Thames Valley Police.

The scheme works by allowing a court to issue the order which allows police to stop and search anyone over 18 who has a previous conviction for carrying a knife. Anyone caught (sic) the order could receive up to two years' imprisonment, an unlimited fine, or both.'

https://www.coventrytelegraph.net/news/l...

1. Please provide details of the order issued, including the area it covers and the date it expires.

2. Please provide the number of criminals in your area convicted of carrying knives in each of the last five calendar years.

3. Please provide all officer guidance related to the trial.

Yours faithfully,

J Roberts

Freedom of Information, West Midlands Police

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responsibility is accepted by West Midlands Police for any loss or damage
arising in any way from the receipt or use of this email.

Freedom of Information, West Midlands Police

4 Attachments

Dear J Roberts

 

FOI Request Reference: 678A/23

 

Thank you for your request for information, received 19/04/23

 

REQUEST

 

I seek information related to the following trial to cut knife crime:

 

'West Midlands Police is one of the four police forces taking part in the
trial which begins tomorrow, Wednesday April 19, and also includes Sussex
Police, Merseyside Police and Thames Valley Police.

 

The scheme works by allowing a court to issue the order which allows
police to stop and search anyone over 18 who has a previous conviction for
carrying a knife. Anyone caught (sic) the order could receive up to two
years' imprisonment, an unlimited fine, or both.'

 

[1]https://gbr01.safelinks.protection.outlo...

 

1.  Please provide details of the order issued, including the area it
covers and the date it expires.

 

2.  Please provide the number of criminals in your area convicted of
carrying knives in each of the last five calendar years.

 

3.  Please provide all officer guidance related to the trial.

 

The FOI Act obliges us to respond to requests promptly and in any case no
later than 20 working days after receiving your request. We must consider
firstly whether we can comply with section 1(1) (a) of the Act, which is
our duty to confirm whether or not the information requested is held and
secondly, we must comply with section 1(1)(b), which is the provision of
such information.

 

However, when a qualified exemption applies either to the confirmation or
denial, or the provision of the information and the public interest test
is engaged, the Act allows the time for response to be longer than 20
working days, if the balance of such public interest is undetermined. In
this case we have not yet reached a decision on where the balance of the
public interest lies in respect of either of the above obligations

 

We estimate that it will take an additional 20 working days to make a
decision on where this balance lies. Therefore, we plan to let you have a
response by 19/06/23 If it appears that it will take longer than this to
reach a conclusion, you will be kept informed. The specific exemption(s)
which apply in relation this information is

 

Section 31- Law Enforcement

 

I apologise for any inconvenience. We aim to provide you with a meaningful
response as soon as possible.

 

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

 

For further information and data on West Midlands Police see our
publication scheme and disclosure log

 

[2]http://foi.west-midlands.police.uk/

 

RIGHT OF APPEAL

 

Your attention is drawn to your right to request a re-examination of your
case under West Midlands Police review procedure, which can be found at:

 

[3]http://foi.west-midlands.police.uk/revie...

 

Please note that such an appeal must be received within 40 working days of
the date of this correspondence. Any such request received after this time
will only be considered at the discretion of the FOI Unit.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

 

 

Michelle Richardson | Freedom of Information
Corporate Communications | West Midlands Police

Working in partnership, making communities safer

[4]If it’s not 999, search WMP Online

[5]twitter icon [6]Instagram Icon [7]YouTube Icon [8]Facebook icon

[9]View all our social network links

 

 

 

This email is intended for the addressee only and may contain privileged
or confidential information. If received in error, please notify the
originator immediately. Any unauthorised use, disclosure, copying or
alteration of this email is strictly forbidden. Views or opinions
expressed in this email do not necessarily represent those of West
Midlands Police. All West Midlands Police email activity is monitored for
virus, racist, obscene, or otherwise inappropriate activity. No
responsibility is accepted by West Midlands Police for any loss or damage
arising in any way from the receipt or use of this email.

References

Visible links
1. https://www.coventrytelegraph.net/news/l...
2. http://foi.west-midlands.police.uk/
3. http://foi.west-midlands.police.uk/revie...
4. website
https://www.west-midlands.police.uk/
5. http://www.twitter.com/wmpolice
6. http://www.instagram.com/westmidlandspol...
7. http://www.youtube.com/westmidlandspolice
8. http://www.facebook.com/westmidlandspolice
9. Social Networks
https://www.west-midlands.police.uk/cont...

Freedom of Information, West Midlands Police

6 Attachments

Dear J Roberts

FOI Request Reference:678A/23

 

Thank you for your request for information, received 19/04/23

 

REQUEST

 

I seek information related to the following trial to cut knife crime:

 

'West Midlands Police is one of the four police forces taking part in the
trial which begins tomorrow, Wednesday April 19, and also includes Sussex
Police, Merseyside Police and Thames Valley Police.

 

The scheme works by allowing a court to issue the order which allows
police to stop and search anyone over 18 who has a previous conviction for
carrying a knife. Anyone caught (sic) the order could receive up to two
years' imprisonment, an unlimited fine, or both.'

 

[1]https://gbr01.safelinks.protection.outlo...

 

1.  Please provide details of the order issued, including the area it
covers and the date it expires.

 

2.  Please provide the number of criminals in your area convicted of
carrying knives in each of the last five calendar years.

 

3.  Please provide all officer guidance related to the trial.

 

RESPONSE

 

Please be advised that the information that you have requested is not
available in a readily retrievable format. In relation to Question 2.
Information prior to April 2021 id held on an archive system, which has
now been taken offline, therefore each weapon offence would need to
located, retrieved and manually read to see if the offender had carried a
knife. For the years 2019 and 2020 we have approximately calculated (using
the data within 2022)

 

706 offences x 2 years (2019 and 2020) = 1412 offences x 5 minutes per
record = 118.15 hours this is in addition to the time already spent
providing data for the other parts of your request.

 

Therefore, the cost of providing you with the information is above the
amount to which we are legally required to respond i.e. the cost of
locating and retrieving the information exceeds the ‘appropriate level’ as
stated in the Freedom of Information (Fees and Appropriate Limit)
Regulations 2004.

 

In accordance with the Freedom of Information Act 2000, this letter acts
as a Refusal Notice for this part of the request and if one part of a
request exceeds the fees limit then S12 of the Act applies to the whole
request

 

However, in accordance with Section 16 of the Act I have a duty to provide
advice and assistance in relation to your request and can provide
information in relation to Question 1/ 3 and part data for question 2.
Please see this attached.

 

 This should not be taken as a precedent that additional information would
be supplied outside of the time/fee’s legislation for any subsequent
requests

 

Further information on section 12 of FOI is available here:

 

[2]https://www.app.college.police.uk/app-co...

 

In relation to Question 3 the redacted information is exempt by virtue of

 

Section 40(2) Personal Data

Section 31(1) Law Enforcement 

 

These exemptions and explanatory notes are shown here:

 

[3]https://www.app.college.police.uk/app-co...

 

Section 40 (2) allows for personal data to be withheld where release would
breach the third party’s data protection rights. It would be unfair to
release this information where any person could be identified from the
data and in this case the right to privacy outweighs any public interest
in release.

 

Section 31(1) I am required to complete a Prejudice Test/Public Interest
Test (PIT) on disclosure. Please find this PIT below.

 

As recommended as good practice by the Information Commissioner’s Office a
version of this response may be published on the West Midlands Police
website.

 

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

 

For further information and data on West Midlands Police see our
publication scheme and disclosure log

 

[4]http://foi.west-midlands.police.uk/

 

RIGHT OF APPEAL

 

Your attention is drawn to your right to request a re-examination of your
case under West Midlands Police review procedure, which can be found at:

 

[5]http://foi.west-midlands.police.uk/revie...

 

[6]www.ico.org.uk/foicomplaints

 

Please note that such an appeal must be received within 40 working days of
the date of this correspondence. Any such request received after this time
will only be considered at the discretion of the FOI Unit.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Michelle Richardson

Freedom of Information Unit

 

Public Interest Test

 

Section 31 – Law Enforcement  

Harm  

West Midlands Police (WMP) provide a generic e-mail address for members of
the public to contact them for non-emergencies. This e-mail address is
monitored / staffed 24 hours a day to ensure that communications are
directed to the correct department effectively reducing the risk that
correspondence will be missed. This is also the e-mail address that the
public should use when wanting to contact members of police staff. This
improves the operational effectiveness and efficiency of WMP. 

The central contact team are trained to be able to monitor this e-mail
address and direct correspondence to the relevant departments, ensuring
that the public are contacting the appropriate person.

If internal e-mail addresses were routinely released the public may be
tempted to contact the department directly with their query /
correspondence rather than this communication been directed through a most
appropriate channel. Using a general e-mail inbox ensures that queries are
not misdirected and delays are not experienced.

The volume of e-mails this would generate could mean that the departments
would be taken up with reading and directing e-mails to other departments,
would this be an effective use of the department’s time. The volume of
e-mail would mean the e-mail account could constantly exceed its limit,
preventing e-mails of significant importance from been received.

Reasons for Disclosure

If the departments e-mail address were to be placed within the public
domain, then the public could choose to circumnavigate the central contact
team.  

Reasons for Non-Disclosure

Use of the central contact team ensures that WMP are working more
efficiently as the public are directed to the relevant department.  

An increase in the number of e-mails may place a burden on the department
preventing them from working as efficiently as possible.

 Use of the central contact team also ensures that e-mails are answered
and the public are responded to, as there maybe circumstances when the
department’s e-mail account may not be monitor for some time meaning that
the public would experience delays with their correspondence being dealt
with.

During a time when the force is looking at efficiency savings, would this
be the efficient use of the department’s time to be directing e-mails,
when we already have a department (the central contact team and force
website) who have the responsibility for this function.

Balance

The release of the information requested would be likely to undermine the
effective operation of WMP if it were in the public domain. We recognise
that release of this information may assist those members of the public
who wish to use internal e-mail addresses to contact the departments
direct.

E-mail addresses that are accessible to the public are readily available
on the force website. An increase in the number of e-mails to any
department would put an additional burden on the department This stops
them from being able to work efficiently and carry out their operational
duties.

WMP need to be able to deal with emails in the most efficient way possible
and our Contact Us team are equipped to deal with these in the most
effective manner. This means that at this time the public interest favors
withholding the requested information.

Michelle Richardson | Freedom of Information
Corporate Communications | West Midlands Police

Working in partnership, making communities safer

[7]If it’s not 999, search WMP Online

[8]twitter icon [9]Instagram Icon [10]YouTube Icon [11]Facebook icon

[12]View all our social network links

 

 

 

This email is intended for the addressee only and may contain privileged
or confidential information. If received in error, please notify the
originator immediately. Any unauthorised use, disclosure, copying or
alteration of this email is strictly forbidden. Views or opinions
expressed in this email do not necessarily represent those of West
Midlands Police. All West Midlands Police email activity is monitored for
virus, racist, obscene, or otherwise inappropriate activity. No
responsibility is accepted by West Midlands Police for any loss or damage
arising in any way from the receipt or use of this email.

References

Visible links
1. https://www.coventrytelegraph.net/news/l...
2. https://www.app.college.police.uk/app-co...
3. https://www.app.college.police.uk/app-co...
4. http://foi.west-midlands.police.uk/
5. http://foi.west-midlands.police.uk/revie...
6. http://www.ico.org.uk/foicomplaints
7. website
https://www.west-midlands.police.uk/
8. http://www.twitter.com/wmpolice
9. http://www.instagram.com/westmidlandspol...
10. http://www.youtube.com/westmidlandspolice
11. http://www.facebook.com/westmidlandspolice
12. Social Networks
https://www.west-midlands.police.uk/cont...