Adult Male Arrests (161A/20)
Request
I am conducting a research project as part of a higher education public services course. I would like to request
the information on adult males who have been arrested from the years 2018/19, 2017/18 and 2016/17.
I would like to know what percentage of those arrests were of white males and what percentage were from black and other minority ethnic groups.
I would also like to know of those percentages how many were later convicted and what sentence they received if this information is available.
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 are unable to provide conviction data, therefore we have provided arrests where the outcome was charged.
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.