Violent crimes that occurred inside KFC restaurants in 2022/23

Freedom of information request reference no: 01.FOI.23.030538

I note you seek access to the following information:

1) Please state how many of the following crimes were alleged to have occurred and recorded by your force as happening inside KFC restaurants in the financial year 2022/23.

Assault offences to include all assault offences

5D - Assault with intent to cause serious harm
8N - Assault with injury
8P - Racially or religiously aggravated assault with injury
105A - Assault without injury
105B - Racially or religiously aggravated assault without injury

Please note I am only interested in assaults which occurred inside the restaurants' premises. To clarify, an assault that was recorded as having happened 'down the road from' KFC would not be of interest, although one that happened inside the restaurant or at least in the doorway/entrance would be.

2) In addition, please state the addresses of the THREE KFCs in your police force area with the most alleged/recorded assault offences in 2022/23 on their premises, stating how many incidents occurred for each one.

3) Finally, please provide me with a verbatim copy of the “investigation summary field” and/or the modus operandi (MO) for the FIVE most recent cases recorded for each of the top three KFC locations. In relation to these 15 (3x5) reports I understand these will have to be redacted to remove private information.

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 30(1)(a)(i) – Investigations and proceedings conducted by the public authority
Section 40(2)&(3) – Personal Information

Reason for decision

Section 30(1)(a)(i) - Investigations and Proceedings Conducted by Public Authorities: - Public Authorities are able to withhold information if it has, at any time, been held by the authority for the purposes of an investigation with a view to it being ascertained whether a person should be charged with an offence.

The investigation summary field of a crime report is created and held by the MPS for the purpose of a criminal investigation. Criminal investigations are, by their nature, confidential and the information recorded for the purpose of an investigation, is typically only disclosed to further the investigation and/or any related criminal proceedings. The release of the nature of each offence recorded, as set out in the investigation summary field, would make public, information that has been obtained, recorded and retained for the explicit purpose of a criminal investigation. The disclosure of this information would be contrary to the purpose for which it held and importantly, would make victims of crime less likely to report offences to the MPS. This would occur because victims of crime would not expect the MPS to release and publish precise details of offences they report to police under the Freedom of Information Act in a potentially identifiable manner. The release of the investigation summary field from a crime report would accordingly, be contrary to the public interest.

Having considered your request, I have chosen to claim Section 30 (Investigations and Proceedings Conducted by Public Authorities) of the Act, in view of the fact that the information in the investigation summary field of a crime report is recorded and held by the MPS for the purpose of a criminal investigation.

Having identified and considered the factors relevant to the public interest, I have carefully examined the importance of transparency with the general public. The MPS is committed to transparency with the general public and recognises that greater transparency is likely to improve public confidence in the MPS. For this reason, I have attached particular weight to this public interest factor.

In assessing your request, I have also evaluated the harm that release of the requested information would cause. I have found that the public release of the investigation summary field of crime reports recorded at KFC restaurants, would be likely to dissuade victims of crime from reporting offences to police. This would occur as the victims of crime would not expect the MPS to release and publish precise details of offences they report to police in a potentially identifiable manner. Having carefully considered your request, I have found that the release of information that could dissuade victims of crime from reporting offences to the police to be a particularly persuasive reason to refuse your request. On balance, I believe that this public interest factor support refusing your request. For this reason, I have refused your request for information.

Section 40(2)&(3) - Personal Information - of the Act provides that any information to which a request for information relates, is exempt information if the first condition of Section 40(3A)(a) is satisfied. The first condition of Section 40(3A)(a) states that personal information is exempt if its disclosure would contravene any of the data protection principles.

There are six principles that are set out in Article 5(1)(a) of the UK General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) that dictate when the processing of personal data is lawful. The first principle requires that any processing of personal data must be lawful, fair and transparent. Under Article 6(1)(f) of the GDPR, the disclosure of personal data is considered to be lawful if:

a. There is a legitimate interest in the disclosure of that personal data.
b. The disclosure of the personal data is necessary to meet that legitimate interest.
c. The disclosure would not cause unwarranted harm to the data subject.

Having considered your request for the investigation summary field of the 15 crime reports recorded at the 3 KFC locations identified at part 2 of your request, I have found that:

a. The disclosure of this information would satisfy a legitimate interest, being to provide further information about the offences recorded at KFC restaurants in financial year 2022/23.

b. The disclosure of this information is necessary to meet the legitimate interest identified at point a above.

c. The public release of the investigation summary field of the 15 crime reports subject of this request would identify the victims, suspects or perpetrators of criminal offences and/or would provide information about them. This would occur as the provision of the investigation summary field would make publicly available, details of a criminal offence at a specific location within the defined timeframe. In this regard, individuals that were aware of police presence at the time of the incident, would be informed of the nature of the offence recorded by police and potentially, who reported the offence. The public release of this information by the police would be unexpected and potentially distressing to the parties involved in these offences/investigations. In this regard, I believe that the disclosure of this personal data would be likely to cause unwarranted harm to the data subjects of this request.

It is important to note that the release of the requested information would also, if it led to the identification of a suspect or perpetrator of a criminal offence and/or disclosed information about them in an identifiable way, constitute personal criminal offence data. The Information Commissioner (the ombudsman for the Act) guidance on the release of personal criminal offence data under the Act states:

“Due to its sensitivity, the conditions for processing criminal offence data are very restrictive and generally concern specific, stated purposes. Consequently, only two are relevant to allow you to lawfully disclose under FOIA or the EIR. They are similar to those identified above for special category data. These are:

• consent from the data subject; or
• the processing relates to personal data which has clearly been made public by the individual concerned.

If a relevant condition cannot be met, you must not disclose the information as disclosure would be unlawful and therefore in contravention of principle (a).”

The conditions required to release personal criminal offence data are not present in this case. The release of the requested personal data does not accordingly satisfy a legitimate interest and cannot be disclosed under the Act.

Disclosure

Q1 - Please state how many of the following crimes were alleged to have occurred and recorded by your force as happening inside KFC restaurants in the financial year 2022/23.

Assault offences to include all assault offences

5D - Assault with intent to cause serious harm
8N - Assault with injury
8P - Racially or religiously aggravated assault with injury
105A - Assault without injury
105B - Racially or religiously aggravated assault without injury

Please note I am only interested in assaults which occurred inside the restaurants' premises. To clarify, an assault that was recorded as having happened 'down the road from' KFC would not be of interest, although one that happened inside the restaurant or at least in the doorway/entrance would be.

Q2 - In addition, please state the addresses of the THREE KFCs in your police force area with the most alleged/recorded assault offences in 2022/23 on their premises, stating how many incidents occurred for each one.”

The requested information has been provided within the enclosed spreadsheet.

I have refused to provide you with the information located in response to the following part of your request:

Q3 - Finally, please provide me with a verbatim copy of the “investigation summary field” and/or the modus operandi (MO) for the FIVE most recent cases recorded for each of the top three KFC locations. In relation to these 15 (3x5) reports I understand these will have to be redacted to remove private information.

Having considered this information for release, I have found it is exempt under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (the Act). The formal ‘Refusal Notice’, including the relevant sections of the Act, is given in the section of this notice titled 'Reason for decision' above.