FOI 0606-2024/25- Dog thefts

Request:

Q1. How many complaints or reports have your force had regarding dogs being stolen in your area between the following years 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, January 2024-30th September 2024?

1b. Please breakdown the figures into the respective years.

1c. Please breakdown the breed of dog in the respective years.

Q2. In each year, please provide the number of missing dog cases the police investigated.

Q3. In each year, please provide the number of missing dogs officers found because of their investigations.

Q4. In each year, what was the average time officers spent investigating a missing dog case? I understand that officers may not keep logs, but I would accept an estimate if at all possible.

Q5. In each year, how many suspects did officers arrest for stealing a dog? Please give details of the charge. I know the Pet Abduction Act became law in 2024, but what would suspects have been charged with prior to this act?

Q6. Have your officers discussed the possibility of organised criminal gangs stealing dogs to order? If so, please provide any internal documents or briefing notes.

Response: 

Extent of Searches to Locate Information

Following receipt of your request searches were conducted within North Yorkshire Police to locate relevant information.

Decision

Your request for information below has now been considered. In respect of Section 1(1)(a) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) we can neither confirm nor deny if North Yorkshire Police does or does not hold the information you have requested. It is estimated that the cost of complying with your request for information would exceed the “appropriate costs limit” under Section 12(2) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

Section 12 (2) allows a public authority to refuse a request where it estimates that it would exceed to appropriate limit to either comply with the request in its entirety or confirm or deny whether the requested information is held.

Due to the nature of our recording systems; the information requested, if held, is not in an easily retrievable format. To establish if any information relevant to your request is held by North Yorkshire Police, a manual review of all internal documents or briefing notes would be required for the timeframe requested to establish if it was related to organised criminal gangs stealing dogs to order. Furthermore, as averages are not held, a manual review would be needed of each missing dog case to establish the time officers spent investigating the case to be able to work out the average time. This itself is creating data for the purposes of fulfilling the request, which we are not obliged to do. It is not known whether the information retrieved, if possible, would be an accurate representation or reliable set of data. This manual process would exceed the 18-hour time limit allowed under the Act.

Pursuant to Section 17(5) of the Freedom of Information Act this letter acts as a Refusal Notice.

Pursuant to Section 16 of the Act I am required to offer you advice and assistance with regarding to refining your request to within the ‘appropriate limit’ (time/cost limit). However, we may be able to provide some information for parts 1 -3 and part 5 of your request if you resubmit and omit part 4 and 6.  If you wish to discuss this please do not hesitate to contact me.

Please note that systems used for recording information are not generic, nor are the procedures used locally in capturing the data.  It should be noted therefore that this force’s response to your questions should not be used for comparison purposes with any other responses you may receive.