Football match arrests (497A/23)
Request
I would like to know, since the start of August 2022 up to now:
1) Total number of arrests at football grounds for racism or any other behaviour/actions related to racism. For each incident, please include the name of the ground, date, if it was a home or away supporter, age and gender of the suspect and the outcome of the case if possible.
2) Total arrests at football grounds in the West Midlands, including the same details as above and the offence for arrest in each case.
Response
Please find attached our response.
We have searched our records and in regard to home/away supporter data there is no specific data held.
In relation to the age of the offender, this information is withheld.
The withheld information is exempt by virtue of the following exemptions
Section 40 (2) personal data
Section 40(2) is an absolute and class-based exemption if to release the information exists would breach the third party’s data protection rights. In this case to release this personal information would not constitute fair processing of the data. As this exemption is class based I am not required to identify the harm in disclosure and in this instance, I believe that the right to privacy outweighs any public interest in release. Given the small amount of arrests, and other detail revealed, linked with the age – a person may easily be identified.
Any further details regarding these incidents are exempt by the following:
Section 40 (2) – Personal information
These exemptions and explanatory notes are shown here:
1) Total number of arrests at football grounds for racism or any other behaviour/actions related to racism. For each incident, please include the name of the ground, date, if it was a home or away supporter, age and gender of the suspect and the outcome of the case if possible.
The above information can be located on attachment: Racist offences
(less the age and the home/away detail for reasons listed above)
2) Total arrests at football grounds in the West Midlands, including the same details as above and the offence for arrest in each case.
The above information can be located on attachment: All offences (less the age and the home/away detail for reasons listed above)
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.