2022/25234 - Investigation lengths
REQUEST
- For crimes closed in each year (2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021) with the outcome “investigation complete (no suspect identified)”, how long on average did the investigation last from the time the crime was recorded to the point the investigation closed. Please give the breakdown for the following crimes:
- a) Residential burglary
- b) Business burglary
- c) Theft from the person
- d) Bicycle theft
- e) Theft of a vehicle
- f) Theft from a vehicle
- For the crime of residential burglary, how many crimes included a visit to the property which was reported to have been burgled. Please supply the data for 2017-2021 inclusive and the overall number of residential burglaries reported in each year.
RESPONSE
- For crimes closed in each year (2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021) with the outcome “investigation complete (no suspect identified)”, how long on average did the investigation last from the time the crime was recorded to the point the investigation closed. Please give the breakdown for the following crimes:
- a) Residential burglary
- b) Business burglary
- c) Theft from the person
- d) Bicycle theft
- e) Theft of a vehicle
- f) Theft from a vehicle
The table below is based on average number of days taken for the investigation to be completed, this is calculated from the time the crime was recorded to the outcome date. The table is broken down by the crimes and the years requested. The table is based only on the outcome ‘18. Investigation complete no suspected identified’.
Please note that outcomes are completely dependent on what the officer has inputted onto the system, it is a manual process. If they have not manually updated this, then the information would not have been updated and won’t be correct.
- For the crime of residential burglary, how many crimes included a visit to the property which was reported to have been burgled. Please supply the data for 2017-2021 inclusive and the overall number of residential burglaries reported in each year.
We are able to provide the below table which is shows the number of residential burglaries that were reported each year with the outcome ‘18. Investigation complete no suspect identified’.
Please keep in mind that outcomes are completely dependent on what the officer has inputted onto the system, it is a manual process. If they have not manually updated this, then the information would not have been updated and won’t be correct.
However, unfortunately, we cannot answer how many crimes included a visit as it will exceed the 18-hour time limit to complete a request. In 2017 alone, there were 1,827 recorded residential burglaries. In order to retrieve the data, each record would need to be reviewed. It would take approximately 2-3 minutes to review each individual record, which would equate to 60.9 hours of research. Therefore, a Section 12 Excess Cost exemption has been applied.
Section 12 – Excess Cost
The exemption applicable to the information you have requested for this question can be found at Section 12(1) of the Act and this refusal notice is issued under Section 17.
Section 12(1) “does not oblige a public authority to comply with a request for information if the authority estimates that the cost of complying with the request would exceed the appropriate limit.”
In the case of a police force, the appropriate limit is set at £450, which is calculated at £25 per hour (i.e. 18 hours). Gwent Police would have to conduct a manual search to find and extract the information for this question. This would take more than 18 hours of staff time therefore we are unable to answer this question and the exemption is engaged.
We appreciate that you may be disappointed on this occasion that we are unable to provide the requested information. However, under Section 16 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, we have a duty to assist you in relation to refining your request, where we may be able to answer some of your questions.
Please Note:
If you would like to contact this office to discuss this matter further, contact details are on the accompanying email.
Section 12 – Excess Cost – if some info is supplied
Although excess cost removes the forces obligations under the Freedom of Information Act, as a gesture of goodwill, we have supplied information, relative to your request, retrieved or available before it was realised that the fees limit would be exceeded. I trust this is helpful, but it does not affect our legal right to rely on the fee’s regulations for the remainder of your request.