FAQ Details
Arrests - 181/11
Dated: 07 Jun 2011
Date of request: 09/06/2011
Date of response: 23/06/2011
Provision of information held by Northumbria Police made under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (the 'Act')
Thank you for your email dated 10 June 2011 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:
How many police officers have performed no arrests in the financial year to 31st March 2010?
In response:
We have now had the opportunity to fully consider your request and I provide a response for your attention.
Following receipt of your request, searches were conducted with the Corporate Development Department of Northumbria Police. I can confirm that the information you have requested is held by Northumbria Police.
I have decided to disclose the located information to you in as follows.
Of the 4,183 total Police Officer establishment for 09/10, the total number of Police Officers who do not have a recorded arrest during that period is 919.
Our officers are actively involved in working closely with communities to address any issues of crime and disorder and do so very successfully. All arrests must pass the nationally established necessity test.
There are many effective ways of dealing with an offender when the offence does not necessitate an arrest. For example by way of a caution, summons to court, issuing a penalty notice, referral to a driver improvement scheme and final warnings or reprimands for juveniles. Northumbria also uses community resolution which is an outcome that the victim agrees on.
A number of police officer roles would not routinely involve officers making arrests due to nature of the role. Some examples of this could include, custody officers, those involved in covert operations or involved in some specialist roles that support operational policing, such as the investigation of serious crimes where one arrest may follow an investigation over several months by teams of police officers.
If you decide to write an article / use the enclosed data we would ask you to take into consideration the factors highlighted above 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.
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