Tinder Crimes (919A/23)
Request
Please could you provide me with the number of crimes reported to your force that include the word “Tinder” (referring to the dating app only) AND whereby the victim of the offence is under the age of 18.
Please provide this information broken down into categories – e.g., rape, sexual activity with a minor, blackmail, etc. – and for EACH of the following years:
2019
2020
2021
2022
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). We have searched our systems for the keyword ‘Tinder in the Incident Summary and MO Notes, but could only find records going back to April 2019. In order to locate and retrieve data for the months of January to March 2019 we would need to conduct a manual review which would exceed the FOI time limit.
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.