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. The number of incidents of spiking with a needle reported to the force since 01/09/21, presented via a month by month breakdown.
2. The outcome of each of these reports (for example, the number of arrests in connection with reports, the number of people charged in connection with reports, the number of cases under investigation and the number of cases no longer under investigation).
3. The number of incidents involving a needle (such as assault or possession) reported to the force since 01/09/21, presented via a month by month breakdown.
4. The outcome of each of these reports.
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 follows with the following caveats 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.
• It should be noted that spiking with a needle can take place in locations other than bars and nightclubs, for example domestic or residential homes. These incidences will be included in this dataset.
• In relation to points 1 and 2 only you have requested the number of “incidents”, however it should be noted that at the point of reporting, we would raise a crime in relation to these cases. As such the data provided is based on crimes.
• Point 3 has been achieved via free-text search for ‘needle’. All returns have been reviewed to establish relevance to this submission. This is a count of incidents.
• Point 4 is the outcome of the incidents.
With all the above noted I respond as follows.
1.
|
|
Sep |
Oct |
Nov |
|
Crimes Involving Spiking With A Needle |
0 |
11 |
39 |
2.
|
Crimes Involving Spiking With A Needle |
Sep |
Oct |
Nov |
|
Arrests |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
Crime Outcomes |
|||
|
Evidential difficulties |
0 |
0 |
1 |
|
Investigation complete - no suspect identified |
0 |
1 |
7 |
|
Not stated |
0 |
10 |
27 |
|
Victim declines or is unable to identify suspect |
0 |
0 |
4 |
3.
|
Sep |
Oct |
Nov |
|
|
Incidents Involving Needles |
42 |
44 |
70 |
4.
|
Incidents Involving Needles |
Sep |
Oct |
Nov |
|
Arrests |
6 |
4 |
7 |
If you decide to write an article / use the enclosed data we would ask you to take into consideration the factors highlighted in this document 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.
