Dog Theft - 206/23

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:

1a) The number of dog thefts reported to your police force in the calendar year 2022, broken down by local policing district (or other geographical breakdown such as local authority)
1b) The number of individual dogs stolen (e.g. a report of two dogs being stolen would count as two) and a breakdown by breed where known
1c) Of the dog thefts reported that year, the number resulting in a charge or summons

2a) The number of dog thefts reported to your police force in the calendar year 2021, broken down by local policing district (or other geographical breakdown such as local authority)
2b) The number of individual dogs stolen and a breakdown by breed where known
2c) Of the dog thefts reported that year, the number resulting in a charge or summons

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 as attached.

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.