Commercial Robberies (965A/21)
Request
We are seeking disclosure of records relating to commercial robberies that took place in the West Midlands Policing Unit area for the period commencing January 2012 up to January 2018.
We should be grateful if you would supply us with a complete copy of all written records and electronic data relating to the volume of commercial robberies conducted and providing the incident details for each commercial robbery in the area during this period.
Clarification received 28/06/2021:
I can confirm that we are seeking disclosure detailing the number of commercial robberies in the West Midlands area and the incident details for each commercial robbery such as the type of commercial robbery, location, time of the incident and any other incident details recorded.
Response
Please find attached our response and be advised that ‘any other incident details recorded’ would capture low level data containing personal information and details of relevant investigations, therefore this would not be available under FOI as it would attract exemptions (i.e. Section 30 – Investigations and proceedings and Section 40 – Personal information).
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.