Offensive Weapon Arrests in Sunderland - 1464/19

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. How many people were arrest with possession of a bladed article or possession of an offensive weapon in public in Sunderland in 2018 and (so far) 2019
2. For each arrest please provide a description of the weapon and the street it was located in as well as the age and gender of the person charged.
3. What was the outcome of each arrest (ie charged, no further action)

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 however cannot be disclosed for the following reasons.

The information requested is not held in a format that would allow its extraction within the permitted 18 hours.  161 people were arrested that fit the criteria of this submission.  A manual review of each would be required to extract all the detail requested.  Even at a conservative estimate of 10 minutes per record, which we have considered as reasonable, we have estimated that to extract this information would take over 26 hours, therefore Section 12(1) 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

However, although excess cost removes Northumbria Police's obligations under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, as a gesture of goodwill I have supplied information below, relative to your request, retrieved or available before it was realised that the fees limit would be exceeded. I trust this is helpful, but it does not affect our legal right to rely on the fees regulations for the remainder of your request.

The caveats below should be noted when viewing the figures.

Searches were made  for crimes in the period requested in Sunderland sector codes using the following HO codes:

005/14 Possession of firearm with intent to endanger life (Group I

005/15 Possession of firearm with intent to endanger life 16 (Group II)

005/16 Possession of firearm with intent to endanger life (Group III)

008/11 Possession of offensive weapon without lawful authority or reasonable excuse

008/13 Possessing firearm or imitation firearm (Group I) at time of committing or being arrested for an offence specified in Schedule 1 of the Act

008/14 Possessing firearm or imitation firearm (Group II) at time of committing or being arrested for an offence specified in Schedule 1 of the Act

008/15 Possessing firearm or imitation firearm (Group III) at time of committing or being arrested for an offence specified in schedule 1 of the Act

008/16 Possessing firearm or imitation firearm (Group I) with intent to commit an indictable offence or resist arrest

008/17 Possessing firearm or imitation firearm (Group II) with intent to commit an indictable offence or resist arrest

008/18 Possessing firearm or imitation firearm (Group III) with intent to commit an indictable offence or resist arrest 008/23 Possession of a firearm or imitation firearm (Group l) with intent to cause fear of violence

008/24 Possession of a firearm or imitation firearm (Group II) with intent to cause fear of violence

008/25 Possession of a firearm or imitation firearm (Group III) with intent to cause fear of violence 008/26 Having an article with a blade or point in a public place

008/27 Having an article with a blade or point on school premises

008/28 Possession of offensive weapon on school premises

008/61 Threaten with an offensive weapon in a public place

008/62 Threaten with a blade or sharply pointed article on school premises

008/63 Threaten with an offensive weapon on school premises

008/64 Threaten with a blade or sharply pointed article in a public place

Further to note

- We only have full information on what has resulted in a crime (eg, type of weapon)

- Not all arrests do result in a crime being recorded

- We have taken "age" to mean "age at the time of the offence"

The weapon types we have used are as follows:

Article with blade or point

Firearm or imitation firearm

Hammer

Improvised or Adapted Weapon

Knuckleduster

Not stated

We also do not hold street name information. The closest we are able to  provide is sector level.

If you decide to write an article / use the enclosed data we would expect that you to take into consideration the factors highlighted above so as not to mislead members of the public or official bodies or misrepresent the relevance of the whole or any part of this disclosed material.

With all the above noted – please see the attached.