FOI Armed Response to Dangerous Dogs (0208-2022/23)

Request

I wish to find out how many times armed officers have been dispatched to respond to reports of dangerous dogs over the last five years.

1. Please provide a number for each of the years below.

• 2018
• 2019
• 2020
• 2021
• 2022 - to date

2. If possible, please state a brief summary of the incident and what happened to the dog.

3. If possible, please state what breed of dog/s was involved.

4. If possible, please state the amount of money spent sending armed response teams to the incidents involving dangerous dogs.

Response
Extent of Searches to Locate Information

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

Decision

I am not obliged to provide you with a response to your request pursuant to Section 12(1) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (the Act). Please note that when one part of your request falls under Section 12, we are not obliged to review the rest of the questions and the whole request is therefore exempt.

Section 12(1) applies to your request as the cost of complying with your request is above the amount to which we are legally required to respond i.e. the cost of identifying and retrieving any relevant information exceeds the ‘appropriate level’ as stated in the Freedom of Information (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004.

Due to the nature of our recording systems the information requested, if held, is not in an easily retrievable format. Our data retrieval process usually relies on computer generated reports where by certain information can be retrieved from specified fields. Where data is held outside of these fields a manual review of each record is required to gather the information requested. Information relating to the breed of dog involved is not held within a specific field, therefore a manual review of all crimes would be necessary, which would exceed the time limit allowed under the Act. 

Furthermore, the amount of money spent sending armed officers to these sorts of incidents is not recorded individually and therefore cannot be provided.

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 you with the information relating to part 1 of your request, if you refine your request and remove parts 2,3 and 4.  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.