Drink Spiking (132A/22)
Request
Thank you for your response to Freedom of Information request 71A/22 and the information already provided about drink spiking. I would like to follow up with a few queries about the information, if it is possible.
We are trying to create a usable dataset on this issue for research and reporting purposes, covering the different police forces in England, Scotland and Wales. As you mention that the data requested under points 2 and 3 has only been recorded by West Midlands Police since September, is it possible to provide data for the three points only with reference to November 2021 and December 2021? It would be very helpful to be able to see the number of reports with testing practises for exactly the same time period.
Secondly, you refer to some of the samples being initially screened/tested and some sent for forensic analysis. Could you confirm what is meant by screening/testing in this context i.e. does it refer to instant drug tests such as the immunoassay or to general classification or storing of the sample?
Response
Please find attached our response.
Please note that these data should be interpreted with caution. Comparing numbers of incidents/crimes can be misleading and does not necessarily indicate the likelihood of someone being a victim of crime. In addition, the number of incidents/crimes recorded in an area over a period of time can be influenced by a number of factors. Consequently statistics on incidents/crimes for one period may not necessarily be a good indicator of future incidents in that area.
Every effort is made to ensure that the figures presented are accurate and complete. However, it is important to note that these data have been extracted from a number of data sources used by forces for police purposes. The detail collected to respond specifically to your request is subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large scale recording system. As a consequence, care should be taken to ensure data collection processes and their inevitable limitations are taken into account when interpreting those data.
The figures provided therefore are our best interpretation of relevance of data to your request, but you should be aware that the collation of figures for ad hoc requests may have limitations and this should be taken into account when those data are used.
If you decide to write an article / use the enclosed data we would ask you to take into consideration the factors highlighted in this document so as to not mislead members of the public or official bodies, or misrepresent the relevance of the whole or any part of this disclosed material.