Dog legislation officers (1721A/23)
Request
- a) Please provide the number of how many registered Dog Legislation Officers (DLO) are employed by the force.
- b) Please provide information on how many examinations of dogs have been performed by the DLOs under the Dangerous Dogs Act 1989 for every calendar month since January 2021.
- c) How many of the examinations done by DLOs to determine if a dog was a banned breed (the answer to question B) resulted in a decision that the animal was of a banned type?
- d) How many dogs have been seized and destroyed by the force under the Dangerous Dogs Act for 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 and until November 1 2023? Please provide a number for the amount of seizures, and a separate figure for the number of destructions.
- e) How many of the dogs destroyed in answer to question D were classified as being of banned types? (Pitbull, Pit Bull Terrier, Japanese Tosa, Dogo Argentino, Fila Braziliero)
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. I trust this is helpful, but it does not affect our legal right to rely on the fee’s regulations for the remainder of the request.
- Please provide the number of how many registered Dog Legislation Officers (DLO) are employed by the force.
3 accredited DLO’s.
- Please provide information on how many examinations of dogs have been performed by the DLOs under the Dangerous Dogs Act 1989 for every calendar month since January 2021.
This information is not readily available, on any West Midlands Police (WMP) system. The 3 DLO’s in WMP have been involved with 1160 records in this time period. There is no way to search through these records to see which cases have required an examination for type, without performing a manual trawl. Allowing a conservative 1 minute per record would engage the cost exemption, as 1160 min = 19.6 hours.
c.How many of the examinations done by DLOs to determine if a dog was a banned breed (the answer to question B) resulted in a decision that the animal was of a banned type?
As per Question B
- How many dogs have been seized and destroyed by the force under the Dangerous Dogs Act for 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 and until November 1 2023? Please provide a number for the amount of seizures, and a separate figure for the number of destructions.
| Year | Seized | Destroyed |
| 2019 | 501 | 126 |
| 2020 | 703 | 139 |
| 2021 | 831 | 149 |
| 2022 | 1035 | 150 |
| 2023 | 1002 | 177 |
- How many of the dogs destroyed in answer to question D were classified as being of banned types? (Pitbull, Pit Bull Terrier, Japanese Tosa, Dogo Argentino, Fila Braziliero)
| Year | Prohibited |
| 2019 | 26 |
| 2020 | 22 |
| 2021 | 24 |
| 2022 | 12 |
| 2023 | 13 |
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