Passenger car thefts reported including make and model from 2019 to 2023
Freedom of information request reference no: 01.FOI.24.039175
I note you seek access to the following information:
If any information is unavailable, exempt, or beyond time/cost limits, please disregard these and provide the rest.
1. The total number of car thefts reported within your police force area for the last five calendar years (2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023). I do not require information on all vehicle thefts, just passenger cars.
2. Please could you also split this data by make and model of each stolen car, and by the colour of each stolen car, where available.
Decision
Having located and considered the relevant information. I have today decided to disclose some of the requested information. Some information has been withheld as it is exempt from disclosure and therefore this response serves as a Partial Refusal Notice under Section 17 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (the Act), by virtue of the following exemptions:
Section 40(2)(3) - Personal Information
Reason for decision
When a request is made under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (the Act), a public authority must inform you, when permitted, whether the information requested is held. It must then communicate that information to you. If a public authority decides that it is cannot comply with all or part of a request, it must cite the appropriate section or exemption of the Act and provide you with a suitable explanation. It is important to note that 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. This is best demonstrated by the FOI disclosures on the Disclosure Log section of the MPS website:
I have considered your request for information, as stated above for question 2, broken-down by make and model and colour of each stolen passenger car. For the calendar years 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023.
The above requests for information is exempt under:
- Section 40(2)(3) - Personal information of the FOIA.
You have requested specific recorded data relating to stolen passenger cars as stated above.
This information is not suitable for public consumption. Should the MPS publish the requested data as specified within the scope of your request broken-down by the colour of stolen passenger cars, showing low numbers of records, it would be at such a level that would make the identification of individuals (perpetrators/victims) extremely possible. To produce and publish this information would not be lawful, fair or in line with our processing commitments. Thus, disclosure of the information requested to the offences stated above, is exempt in accordance with Section 40(2)(3A)(a) of the Act – Personal Information.
When looking at disclosing the requested information, I have considered various pieces of guidance, including the ICO’s guidance which examines a number of issues relating to the disclosure of crime data.
I have, when looking at the data, considered the following, broadly equivalent factors when making my decision:
- The time periods.
- Sensitivity of the crimes.
- The availability of other sources of information.
- The effect on victims/perpetrators.
It is often believed that such information, is unlikely to allow anyone to actually identify those and ‘there would be no way of knowing who these people were unless you were a witness to the crime’ for example. However, when considering identifiability, we have to assume that we are not looking just at the means reasonably likely to be used by the ordinary person in the street, but also the means that are likely to be used by a determined person (or a ‘motivated intruder’) with a particular reason to want to identify individuals. Examples would include investigative journalists, estranged partners, stalkers, to name but a few.
If this level of data was to be disclosed, it could be pieced together with information already known by individuals or already in the public domain in order to identify the individuals involved. For example, individuals may be partially aware of certain details of an alleged crime through word of mouth, witnessing an incident or police presence.
Therefore, where the request is seeking information that would essentially allow access to third party personal data (such as in this case) the Section 40(2) exemption may be engaged.
Disclosure
The total number of car thefts reported within your police force area for the last five calendar years (2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023). I do not require information on all vehicle thefts, just passenger cars.
I have disclosed the following information:
Please find below a spreadsheet in which the requested information has been provided.
IMPORTANT:
• Please ensure that the note section within the spreadsheet is read in conjunction with the data in this report to ensure that it is interpreted correctly.
DUTY TO ADVISE AND ASSIST
Under Section 16 of the Act, there is a duty to advise and assist those making requests for information.
In accordance with this duty, please be advised, if you resubmit under a new FOIA request the following question, the MPS may be able to consider your request.
- The total number of passenger car thefts reported within the MPS district for the last five