FAQ Details
Front Line Officers - 629/10
Dated: 21 Oct 2010
Date of request: 06/10/2010
Date of response: 21/10/2010
Provision of information held by Northumbria Police made under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (the 'Act')
Thank you for your email dated 6 October 2010 in which you made a request for access to certain information which may be held by Northumbria Police.
As you may be aware the purpose of the Act is to allow a general right of access to information held by a Public Authority (including the Police), subject to certain limitations and exemptions.
You asked:
Definition: by “front-line officer” I mean officers who normally patrol an area and/or attend incidents rather than officers with a solely back office function:
What percentage of each front-line officers time is spent on paperwork in general?
What percentage of each front-line officers time is spent on specifically crime related paperwork?
What were the total costs related to complaints against front-line officers by members of the public in the past year (or in the last 12 months in which these costs were established)?
What is the annual salary bill for all front-line officers in your constabulary?
In response:
We have now had the opportunity to fully consider your request and I provide a response for your attention.
The percentages are based on data from the latest available survey data which was 2008/09. It includes all officers at Police Constable and Sergeant rank across all Area Commands with the exception of Northumberland. Northumberland has been removed as the Morpeth floods of Sept 08 occurred during the survey and as such the activities undertaken would not be an accurate reflection of regular policing.
The % time shown includes time spent on all types of incident related paperwork and computer work i.e. file preparation, witness statements, updating logs, crime reports, computer work. It also includes paperwork and computer work that is general and cannot be related to an incident.
All %'s include both paperwork and computer work.
The question requests '% of each frontline officer' - the %'s shown are across all officers surveyed not particular to each officer i.e. some may surveyed more or less than others.
24/7 Response Officers 24.3% spent on paperwork/computer work
Neighbourhood Officers 22.7% spent on paperwork/computer work
Both 24.0% spent on paperwork/computer workThe percentages are based on data from the latest available survey data which was 2008/09. It includes all officers at Police Constable and Sergeant rank across all Area Commands with the exception of Northumberland. Northumberland has been removed as the Morpeth floods of Sept 08 occurred during the survey and as such the activities undertaken would not be an accurate reflection of regular policing.
The % time shown includes time spent on all crime related paperwork and computer work i.e. file preparation, witness statements, updating logs, crime reports, computer work etc.
The question requests '% of each frontline officer' - the %'s shown are across all officers surveyed not particular to each officer i.e. some may surveyed more or less than others.
24/7 Response Officers 13.2% spent on paperwork/computer work
Neighbourhood Officers 11.1% spent on paperwork/computer work
Both 12.7% spent on paperwork/computer workThe costs related to complaints against front-line officers by members of the public are not recorded individually, as such the total costs can not be calculated. Work by officers and staff will have been undertaken as part of their normal duties and they do not record times and costs spent on an individual case basis. In order to assess the costs incurred by the Force, would require a manual search of convoluted financial systems. We have estimated that to extract any information we may hold would take over 18 hours, therefore Section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act would apply. This section does not oblige a public authority to comply with a request for information if the authority estimated that the cost of complying with the request would exceed the appropriate limit of 18 hours, equating to £450.00.
You should consider this to be a refusal notice under section 17 of the Act for that part of your request.
No information held. Information is not held down to the level specific to your request. However the Statement of Accounts is freely available on the Northumbria Police Authority website, which may be of interest to you. I have supplied the web address below:
The information we have supplied to you is likely to contain intellectual property rights of Northumbria Police. Your use of the information must be strictly in accordance with the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 (as amended) or such other applicable legislation. In particular, you must not re-use this information for any commercial purpose.
How to complain
If you are unhappy with our decision or do not consider that we have handled your request properly and we are unable to resolve this issue informally, you are entitled to make a formal complaint to us under our complaints procedure which can be found at: http://www.northumbria.police.uk/foi/disclosurelog/foicomprights.asp
If you are still unhappy after we have investigated your complaint and reported to you the outcome, you may complain directly to the Information Commissioner’s Office and request that they investigate to ascertain whether we have dealt with your request in accordance with the Act.
Yours sincerely
Michael Cleugh
Data Protection and Disclosure Advisor
Direct Dial: 01661 868347