Community Protection Warnings (1179A/22)
Request
Please forward any and all policies you hold relating to the issuing of CPWs.
Please also confirm how many complaints you received annually over the past 10 years in relation to the following:
- the issuing of CPWs
- discrimination by WMP
- Please also confirm reasons for the complaints and ethnicity and religious background of complainants, outcomes of complaints including and disciplinary sanctions.
Please also state the religion and ethnic background of those issued with CPWs where possible.
AMENDED REQUEST
Please forward any and all policies you hold relating to the issuing of CPWs. – we assume you can provide this with no issue as this has not been mentioned in your response. Please confirm.
Please confirm annual complaints received relating to alleged racial or religious discrimination by WMP over past 10 years and complainant details and outcomes
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).
In relation to religion and ethnic background of those issued with CPWs – this information is not centrally recorded, therefore we would need to conduct a manual review of all relevant information, this search 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.