Jewellery Theft (572A/21)
Request
I’d like to request information on Jewellery that has been reported as stolen;
1) The amount of cases of reported stolen jewellery, across all theft offence types.
2) If known, the total value of all jewellery that has been stolen.
I’m looking for information specifically within the area of Birmingham, Coventry, Wolverhampton.
If I could please receive these for 2018, 2019, 2020 that would be fantastic.
CLARIFICATION
I believe the option of the Jewellery filter on the Product Category Description would be best fitting according to the information I am seeking.
Response
Our data are not organised in such a way as to allow us to provide this information within the appropriate (cost) limit within the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act (see ‘Reason for Decision’ below).
Although excess cost removes the force’s obligations under the Freedom of Information Act, as a gesture of goodwill I have supplied information, relative to your request, retrieved before it was realised that the fees limit would be exceeded (see attached). I trust this is helpful, but it does not affect our legal right to rely on the fees regulations for the remainder of the request.
REASON FOR DECISION
Please note that researching each individual case would exceed the appropriate limit (FOIA, s.12). It would not be possible to read through the MO Notes of each offence to find the value of the goods stolen, as this would require a manual search of all records and would exceed the FOI time limit.
Also please note we have conducted the search as requested, however in order to be 100% accurate that all the results relate to ‘jewellery’ would again require a manual review of each record.
The cost of compliance with the whole of your request is above the amount to which we are legally required to respond, i.e. the cost of locating and retrieving the information would exceed the appropriate costs limit under section 12(1) of the FOI Act 2000. For West Midlands Police, the appropriate limit is set at £450, as prescribed by the Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004, S.I. 3244.