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:
How many incidents of "upskirting" have been alleged between January 1 2018 and December 31 2018?;
"Upskirting" is the term for when people put cameras under unsuspecting women's skirts (or men’s kilts) and take a picture of their crotch, usually just before the victim has noticed what has happened.
A further example can be found in this case study here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-40861875
As "upskirting" is not currently a criminal offence, it may be necessary to conduct a keyword or free text search, using the terms "upskirt" and "upskirting".
Where possible, please break down the date of when the incident was alleged (the month is fine);
Where possible, please state the details of the allegation (Basic details such as what is alleged to have happened, the age and sex of the alleged victim, where known);
Whether the allegation ever formed some part of a criminal charge (and, where possible, details of any prosecution).
In Response:
The data has been taken from the central database using a free text search of the first three lines of the incident description.
Only the first three lines of the incident description be searched in the central database. If the keywords appear after this point in the incident description the incident will not be included in the resulting dataset.
With the above noted I am able to disclose the located information to you as follows.
June 2018. Male laid mobile phone on ground and filmed up Female’s skirt. Both parties were under 16 years old.
No charges made.
