Clarity is required on your request to allow us to progress
Please clarify what time span you are looking for, as at some points you ask for the 'previous 3 years', but then specify from January 2014, which would be 4 years to date.
Therefore please state specifically which years you are referring to, to avoid doubt, ( ie do you mean 2014,2015,2016, 2017 or do you mean 2015,2016, 2017?).

Once this is clear we can progress accordingly.

Regards

Information Management Unit

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Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA)

Thank you for your email received today in which you make a request for information that Northumbria Police may hold in accordance with the Freedom Of Information Act 2000

We are in the process of dealing with your request and a response should be provided to you by 30/01/2018 which is in accordance with the legislation.

We are taking it that by 'the previous 3 years' you are referring to 2015,2016 & 2017.

If that is not correct you will need to advise by return, stating which years you do refer to.

Yours sincerely

Information Management Unit

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Provision of information held by Northumbria Police made under the Freedom
of Information Act 2000 (the 'Act')

Thank you for your e mail dated 29 December 2017 in which you made a
request for access to certain information which may be held by Northumbria
Police.

As you may be aware the purpose of the Act is to allow a general right of
access to information held at the time of a request, by a Public Authority
(including the Police), subject to certain limitations and exemptions.

You asked:

The information I am requesting is for the previous 3 calendar years .

My request is for the number of Northumbria police officers who have been
charged with a crime.

I would also like to be sent a breakdown of the number of charges against
each of the police officers for each of the 3 years - E.g. 1st January
2014/15 ... (for the previous three years, and/or up until the date this
request is received).

Please also give details of what protocol is used by Northumbria police
for dealing with such cases, i.e. charges against officers, those which
relate to crimes etc.

We then sought clarity as to the time span and you responded ‘I am
requesting the information for the past 3 years’.

We took that to be the time period 2015, 2016 and 2017 and we advised you
of that in our acknowledgment. We also advised that if that was incorrect
that you get back to us and advise further.

We have now had the opportunity to fully consider your request and I
provide a response for your attention.

Following receipt of your request, searches were conducted with the
Professional Standards Department of Northumbria Police. I can confirm
that the information you have requested is held by Northumbria Police
however will not be disclosed for the following reasons.

You have submitted 3 requests on the same day for information regarding
the misconduct of police officers/police staff.  As per our
acknowledgements to you on your subsequent requests, FOIs 003/18 and
011/18 refer, we advised that, as your requests were on the same subject
matter, Misconduct of police officers or staff,  your requests would be
aggregated due to cost/time constraints .

I can advise that when considered together, your 3 requests far exceed the
permitted 18 hours and therefore Section 12 is applicable.  Both FOI
003/18 and FOI 011/18 in their own right  exceed the permitted 18 hour
threshold.  This then means that this request, when considered with the
others, also automatically falls into the Section 12(1) refusal.

You should consider this to be a refusal notice under Section 17 of the
Act for your request.

The reasons for the refusal of FOI 003/18 and 011/18 will be addressed in
our response to those particular queries.

Additionally we have reached a point where we can no longer justify
continuing to allocate public funds to dealing with your requests. You
have submitted numerous requests of a similar nature in a short period of
time relating to allegations, complaints and disciplinary processes made
against Northumbria Police. Each response is met with a further request or
a request for an internal review.  It is apparent that you have an ongoing
grievance against Northumbria Police.  FOI is not the correct route to air
such grievances, and is a misuse of the Act.  We therefore feel that we
have justification to make any further request on this subject 
vexatious.   

Due to the different methods of recording information across 43 forces, a
specific response from one constabulary should not be seen as an
indication of what information could be supplied (within cost) by another.
Systems used for recording these figures are not generic, nor are the
procedures used locally in capturing the data. For this reason responses
between forces may differ, and should not be used for comparative
purposes.

The information we have supplied to you is likely to contain intellectual
property rights of Northumbria Police. Your use of the information must be
strictly in accordance with the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 (as
amended) or such other applicable legislation. In particular, you must not
re-use this information for any commercial purpose.

You may be interested to know that Northumbria Police routinely publish
information via the Disclosure Log. The aim of the Disclosure Log is to
promote openness and transparency by voluntarily placing information into
the public arena.

The Disclosure Log contains copies of some of the information that has
been disclosed by Northumbria Police in response to requests made under
the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

Whilst it is not possible to publish all responses we will endeavour to
publish those where we feel that the information disclosed is in the wider
public interest.

The Disclosure Log will be updated once responses have been sent to the
requester.

I have provided the relevant link below.

[1]http://www.northumbria.police.uk/freedom...

How to complain

If you are unhappy with our decision or do not consider that we have
handled your request properly and we are unable to resolve this issue
informally, you are entitled to make a formal complaint to us under our
complaints procedure, attached below

[2]http://www.northumbria.police.uk/freedom...

If you are still unhappy after we have investigated your complaint and
reported to you the outcome, you may complain directly to the Information
Commissioner’s Office and request that they investigate to ascertain
whether we have dealt with your request in accordance with the Act.

Yours sincerely

Michael Cleugh

Data Protection and Disclosure Advisor

Direct Dial: 0191 2956941

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NORTHUMBRIA POLICE PRIVACY AND CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE

The information contained in this message and any attachment(s) is confidential and intended only for the attention of the named organisation or individual to whom it is addressed. The message may contain information that is covered by legal, professional or other privilege. No mistake in transmission is intended to waive or compromise any such privilege. This message has been sent over public networks and the sender cannot be held responsible for its integrity.

If you are not the intended recipient be aware that any disclosure, copying, distribution or action taken in reliance of the information contained herein is strictly prohibited, and is contrary to the provisions of the Copyright Designs and Patents Act, 1988 and of the Data Protection Act, 1998.

Any views expressed are those of the sender and, unless specifically stated, do not necessarily represent the view of Northumbria Police.

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If you have received this message in error, please notify the sender by e-mail at once and delete the message immediately.

For more information about Northumbria Police please visit our website - http://www.northumbria.police.uk

References

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