Use of Force (786A/20)
Request
a) Please provide the total number of times restraint techniques were used by officers in your force – i.e. the number of restraints reported by individual officers in use of force forms – for each of the past two years April 2018 to March 2019 and April 2019 to March 2020.
b) For each year, please provide totals for each ethnicity of the subject as perceived and provided by officers in use of force forms – i.e. the total number of white, black, Asian, or other subjects, as well as the total number not recorded/not known
2 a) Please provide the total number of Conducted Energy Device (CED, ie TASER) incidents recorded in your force over the past two years (Apr 2018 – Mar 2019 and April 2019 – Mar 2020)
b) For each year please provide the total number of incidents in which CEDs were discharged, along with the totals for each ethnicity of the subject as perceived and provided by officers in use of force forms – i.e. the total number of white, black, Asian, or other subjects, as well as the total number not recorded/not known
c) For each year please provide the total number of incidents in which CEDs were not discharged, along with the totals for each category of ethnicity of the subject as perceived and provided by officers in use of force forms – i.e. the total number of white, black, Asian, or other subjects, as well as the total number not recorded/not known
3.a) Please provide the total number times irritant spray was used in your force over the past two years (Apr 2018 – Mar 2019 and April 2019 – Mar 2020)
b) For each year please provide the total number of incidents recorded in which irritant spray was discharged, along with the totals for each ethnicity of the subject as perceived and provided by officers in use of force forms – i.e. the total number of white, black, Asian, or other subjects, as well as the total number not recorded/not known
c) For each year please provide the total number of incidents in which irritant spray was not discharged, along with the totals for each ethnicity of the subject as perceived and provided by officers in use of force forms – i.e. the total number of white, black, Asian, or other subjects, as well as the total number not recorded/not known
4 a) Please detail the number of times officers have attended incidents over the past two years (Apr 2018 – Mar 2019 and April 2019 – Mar 2020) where the subject has been suffering from a confirmed or suspected ABD (acute behavioural disturbance
)b) Please provide the number of times these incidents resulted in force such as restraint techniques, CED, irritant spray being, firearm or other force used
c) For each category – i.e. no force used, restraint, CED, irritant spray, firearm, other – please provide the totals for each ethnicity of the subject as perceived and provided by officers in use of force forms – i.e. the total number of white, black, Asian, or other subjects, as well as the total number not recorded/not known
Response
Please be advised that the information that you have requested is not available in a readily retrievable format. In relation Question 4, a and b. As each incident log or Use of force form would need to be located and retrieved to see if this information was contained within these forms.
Therefore the cost of providing you with the information is above the amount to which we are legally required to respond i.e. the cost of locating and retrieving the information exceeds the ‘appropriate level’ as stated in the Freedom of Information (Fees and Appropriate Limit) Regulations 2004.
In accordance with the Freedom of Information Act 2000, this letter acts as a Refusal Notice for this part of the request and if one part of a request exceeds the fees limit then S12 of the Act applies to the whole request
However, In accordance with Section 16 of the Act I have a duty to provide advice and assistance in relation to your request and can provide information in relation to Question 1 and 2 and 3 some of this information is already published and due for publication, please see attached where we have provided a detailed answer to what information can be provided within the cost limit under FOI.
This should not be taken as a precedent that additional information would be supplied outside of the time/fees legislation for any subsequent requests
Further information on section 12 of FOI is available here:
Attachments