Provision of information held by Northumbria Police made under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (the 'Act')
As you may be aware the purpose of the Act is to allow a general right of access to information held at the time of a request, by a Public Authority (including the Police), subject to certain limitations and exemptions.
You asked:
1. For the calendar years 2019, 2020 and 2021, please tell me how many recorded crimes of alleged blackmail you have recorded which made reference to one (or more) of the following online dating applications in the MO:
a) Tinder
b) Bumble
c) Grindr
d) Feeld
2. For the last ten such crimes recorded over the three-year period, please can you provide me with copies of the MOs?
In Response:
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 am able to disclose the located information to you with all the below noted.
• 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 taken into account 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 taken into account when those data are used.
• The Home Office Classification used for research is 035/00 - Blackmail.
• To note: as with any keyword search, the search will only return exact matches within the Crime MO. This does not account for differences in terminology and/or spelling used. Also, we cannot search the crime investigation screens/additional information screens, if the terms are not used within the MO the crime will not be identified. The MO search is limited to the first 242 characters of the MO, any information beyond that will not be searched.
With the above noted I respond as follows.
1.
|
Calendar Year |
Blackmail Crimes |
|
2019 |
4 |
|
2020 |
1 |
|
2021 |
14 |
|
Grand Total |
19 |
2. The below summaries are provided in a way which avoids the use of exemptions being applied to withhold.
|
Offender sends explicit footage and requests Injured Party (IP) does the same. Once IP has provided intimate footage, offender then blackmails IP. |
|
IP has sent sexual images to offender. These have then been sent to friends & relatives. Victim then received a blackmail request for money. |
|
Offender records IP masturbating, after several messages then demands money or will share video. |
|
IP shares explicit video with offender who then demands money or video would be shared with IPs contacts. |
|
IP converses with unknown account and intimate photos are sent between the pair. The unknown individual then requests money to prevent images being sent to members of the IPs friends list. |
|
IP and offender meet over tinder and arrange to meet up the offender then demands money or they would inform victims partner. |
|
IP sends naked body pictures to the offender. Offender makes demand for money or images would be circulated to IPs facebook contacts. |
|
IP meets unknown person via tinder then moves to snapchat where the IP masturbates, the unknown person then demands money or they will send clip to all of IPs contacts. |
|
IP sends offender an explicit video which offender then threatens to send to IP's friends unless IP pays. |
|
IP sends offender nude pictures of themselves. Offender then later asks IP for money or images are sent to IPs family. |
