Just stop oil protests (1590A/23)

31 October 2023 | Incident and Crime Statistics

Request

Response

For Questions 1 – 3:

 

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).

 

1. What is the total number of arrests were made related to ‘Just Stop Oil’ protests, including both protesters and those who have assaulted protesters?

 

1. How many ‘Just Stop Oil’ protesters are currently being prosecuted or under investigation after being arrested?

 

1. What is the breakdown of charges that these ‘Just Stop Oil’ protesters are being arrested over all those that were arrested?

 

In relation to question 1, where a person is arrested and taken to a custody block, when they are booked into custody the arrest location will be the place they were arrested, i.e. the street name / house etc.  The fact that they were arrested in relation to “just stop oil” protests would not be recorded in a retrievable format, if this fact is even recorded. It may or may not be contained within the investigation notes at some point.  The individual could have been arrested for any criminal matter and therefore every crime / arrest would need to be individual assessed to see if it meets your desired criteria.

 

As we are unable to obtain the data (if any) for question 1 we are unable to answer question 2 and 3.

 

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. I am however willing to consider any refinements that you are able to make to your request, in accordance with Section 16 of the Freedom of Information Act.

 

Q4: What is the total number of ‘Just Stop Oil’ protests in which the police have been called?

Please provide any details or reports where possible from 2022-Present (inclusive).

 

The only way to retrieve results is to use a keyword search.

 

Keyword searches are notoriously unreliable, the reasons why searches using this method are not reliable include (but are not limited to) the following: –

1. a) Searches rely on the keywords being spelt correctly with no grammatical errors
2. b) Searches rely on the keywords actually being mentioned in the summary description of the record – if they are mentioned anywhere else within the record but not in the summary, then they will not feature in any results

 

The key words that we have used for the period between 1 January 2022 and 15 October 2023 within the ‘title’, ‘detail’ and ‘further comments’ fields are: –

 

‘Just Stop Oil’, ‘Oil Protest’, ‘Fuel Protest’, ‘Fule Protest’, ‘Operation Valegro’, ‘Operation Velegro’, ‘JSO Group’, ‘JSO Event’

There 42 incidents where the above keywords were mentioned.

23 of the 42 incidents were attended by the Police.  Many incidents were targeted patrols, mutual aid request, advice requests and reports of protestors for just stop oil.

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 considered 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 considered 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.

 

As recommended as good practice by the Information Commissioner’s Office a version of this response may be published on the West Midlands Police website.

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