Dog Attacks (1507A/23)
Request
- Dog attacks by year since 2015 including; non-reported breeds, suspected breeds and confirmed breeds.
- Dog seizures by year since 2015 including; non-reported breeds, suspected breeds and confirmed breeds.
- Reports/calls of dangerous dogs from the public that resulted in seizure / action by year since 2015 including; non-reported breeds, suspected breeds and confirmed breeds.
- Reports/calls of dangerous dogs from the public that did not result in seizure / action by year since 2015 including; non-reported breeds, suspected breeds and confirmed breeds.
- Confirmation that trained dog handlers attended any call out to dogs. If not, the reasons as to why and the result of the call out.
6.The number of trained dog handlers in your force.
Response
Please be advised that the information that you have requested is not available in a readily retrievable format. In relation to Question 1 / 2 / 3 and 4. Below is an explanation and calculation as to why this information cannot be located and retrieved within the cost limit under FOI.
Question 1 – Our crimes system for recorded S3 DDA offences does not allow us to search on breeds, either suspected or confirmed.
Since 2015 (financial year dates) there have been 6293 recorded offences where injury has been caused by a dog being dangerously out of control.
To allow a very conservative 2 minutes to access each record and scan the report to try and identify a breed would take 6293 records x 2 minutes = 209.8 hours to complete this work.
Question 2 – The request does not specify seizures involved in S3 offences, so we have included figures for all contacts as listed on our system, as this will encapsulate welfare seizure, strays, as well as S3 and S1 offences.
Since 2015 there have 5003 records created. Again, we have no central recording category that would identify information into non-reported breeds, suspected or confirmed breeds. To access each record to view the initial breed, allowing a very conservative 30 seconds per record would take approx. 41.5 hours (0.5 minutes x 5003 records = 41.7 hours) to complete this work.
Question 3 and 4 – In respect of these questions searching our systems would only give the number of logs closed as “Dangerous dog”.
To access each record to view if they were seized or not, again allowing a very conservative 30 seconds per record would take approx. 41.5 hours (0.5 minutes x 5003 records = 41.7 hours) to complete this work.
Therefore, this would take in excess of 290 hours to complete this task which is above the amount to which we are legally required to respond i.e. the cost of locating and retrieving the information exceeds the ‘appropriate level’ as stated in the Freedom of Information (Fees and Appropriate Limit) Regulations 2004.
In accordance with the Freedom of Information Act 2000, this letter acts as a Refusal Notice for this part of the request and if one part of a request exceeds the fee’s limit then S12 of the Act applies to the whole request
However, in accordance with Section 16 of the Act I have a duty to provide advice and assistance in relation to your request and can provide the following, in respect of Question 5 I can advise that Where resources allow, a trained dog handler should attend all calls of a dog incident in progress. Question 6 we can advise we have 54 – 48 operational PC handlers, 5 operational Sergeants, 1 Inspector.
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