Intruder Alarms (99A/21)
Request
I am after the following information, if possible:
- Since 2018, what has been the average police response time to intruder alarms that have been set off with police response alarms (URN)
AND
- In 2020, what was the item most commonly stolen from a ‘burglary in a dwelling’ OR ‘burglary – residential’
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.
Please note: General house alarms or businesses, unless they pay into ADT or alarm service, do not always get a response – unless witnessing a crime in progress which would always be an immediate response.
REASON FOR DECISION
Please note that researching each individual case would exceed the appropriate limit (FOIA, s.12). For the second question, property stolen from burglaries is not accurately recorded and would require a manual search, which 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.