Offences logged of "Making a threat to kill" posted on Facebook

Freedom of information request reference no: 01.FOI.22.023036

I note you seek access to the following information:

1. In the 2021 calendar year how many offences did your force log of "making a threat to kill" where the threat was posted on Facebook?

2. Starting from the month of October 2021 please provide me with copies of the first five MOs that relating to question 1 complete with the wording that was used on Facebook. [Note: To avoid falling into an exemption I am content for names, ages, geography or any other personal detail to be redacted].

Decision

I have today decided to disclose some of the requested information. Some data has been withheld as it is exempt from disclosure and therefore this response serves as a Refusal Notice under Section 17 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (the Act) by virtue of the following exemptions:

Section 40(2)(3A)(a) - Personal Information

Reason for decision

The Act creates a statutory right of access to information held by public authorities. A public authority in respect of a request must, if permitted, state under Section 1(a) of the Act, whether it holds the requested information and, if held, then communicate that information to the applicant under Section 1(b) of the Act.

The right of access to information is not without exception and is subject to a number of exemptions which are designed to enable public authorities to withhold information that is unsuitable for release. Importantly, the Act is designed to place information into the public domain, that is, once access to information is granted to one person under the Act, it is then considered public information and must be communicated to any individual should a request be received.

Section 40(2)(3A)(a) – Personal Information - consider that Section 40(2) and 40(3A)(a) is applicable in this case, as any further disclosure at this level of detail, would breach the 1st data protection principle that requires personal data to be processed lawfully, fairly and in a transparent manner in relation to individuals.

There is no presumption of disclosure in relation to ‘personal data’ which is defined as: ‘any information relating to an identified or identifiable living individual’

“Identifiable living individual” means a living individual who can be identified, directly or indirectly, in particular by reference to—

(a) An identifier such as a name, an identification number, location data or an online identifier, or
(b) One or more factors specific to the physical, physiological, genetic, mental, economic, cultural or social identity of the individual.’

For such disclosure to be lawful, it would be necessary to satisfy a condition within Article 6 of the GDPR. Article 6 sets out the six lawful bases, applying to all processing; one of which must be in place in every case of disclosure of personal data, in accordance with the first data protection principle.

Here, we need to balance the rights and freedoms of the individuals involved with any legitimate public interest in disclosure. Any further disclosure of the requested information complete with the wording that was used, under FOIA legislation is not necessary to meet a legitimate interest, particularly when considering the distress that is likely to be caused to victims and individuals with the disclosure of wholly personal information via an FOIA request.

With this in mind, the data subjects in the circumstances of your request would have a legitimate expectation that this type of personal data would not be used for non-policing purposes (i.e. FOIA requests – disclosures for which are also placed on the MPS website Publication Scheme).

Any further disclosure in the circumstances of your request would be unlawful and would therefore contravene the first data protection principle. I have therefore applied the exemption provided under Section 40(2) of the Freedom of Information Act to this information as the first condition, defined in subsection (3A)(a) of Section 40 has been satisfied.

Disclosure

During the 2021 calendar year, there were 5 relevant offences recorded in the MPS matching your criteria. Only 4 occurred from October 2021 and a summary of these are provided below:

1. Death threats and insults to victim via messages.

2. Victim has received messages threatening they will be killed.

3. Victim has received threats to kill messages.

4. Threats to harm and kill victim received via messages.