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:
If possible, please could you provide information on the following for the last 10 years (2008 – 2018):
1. How many police traffic officers did your force have at the start of each of calendar year?
2. If possible, please provide a breakdown of the number of police traffic officers who would be on patrol each shift,
3. indicate whether this has changed or remained constant over time.
In Response:
We have now had the opportunity to fully consider your request and I provide a response for your attention.
With regards to question 1, 2012-2018 the below exemption is applicable
As the information you have requested is accessible by other means I have not provided you with a copy of the information and will rely on Section 21 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000. You should therefore consider this a refusal for your request.
I have provided an explanation to this exemption below.
Section 21 (1) - Information accessible by other means
Information which is reasonably accessible to the applicant is exempt information.
This information is already published on the Northumbria Police Disclosure Log and therefore in the public domain. FOI 137/18 refers. The link to the Log is provided below.
With regards to figures not already published:
2008 : 143.62 FTE
2009 : 142.66 FTE
2010 : 139.66 FTE
2011 : 140.79 FTE
2. We hold no information at this point from 2008 to 2012.
For data from 2012 – 2018 see below
2012 – 32
2013 – 32
2014 - 31
2015 - 24
2016 - 24
2017 – 18
2018 – 18
Operation Dragoon incepted in 2015 which resulted in officers being removed from each of the shifts to form Dragoon which is still ongoing.
3. This can be established from the figures provided.
Further information on Operation Dragoon can be found on the Northumbria Police website. I have provided the below link however other information is also available.
