police officers with complaints of domestic violence (581A/21)
Request
- How many police officers serving with your force had a complaint of domestic violence made against them in each of the last three calendar years (i) 2018, (ii) 2019 and (iii) 2020?
- In (i) how many of these cases was disciplinary action taken against the officer and (ii) was some sort of disciplinary sanction imposed on the officer?
- For each case where a sanction was imposed please detail what this sanction was.
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). Unfortunately due to the reason below, I am unable to suggest any practical way in which your request may be modified in order to satisfy your query or bring it within the 18 hours stipulated by the Regulations.
REASON FOR DECISION
This information is not centrally collated. Allegations of domestic violence would be recorded in crime systems, however we do not record the occupation of the suspect in the crime systems in a searchable format. Where any suspect is identified as a police officer, this would be referred to the Professional Standards Department (PSD) as a conduct matter and the allegation recorded on PSD IT systems. However, there is no automatic search (such as a tick box for ‘suspect for domestic violence’), therefore in order to determine the requested information we would need to manually review all conduct cases. Such a search would exceed the appropriate limit (FOIA, s.12).
This means that 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.
Further information on section 12 of FOI is available here:
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