FOI E-Bike Crimes (352-2024/25)

Request

Q1. How many crimes have been recorded that mentioned “electric bike”, “e-bike”, “electric scooter”, or “e-scooter” in each of the years 2023/24, 2022/3, 2021/2, 2020/21 and 2019/20?

For each year, could you please provide the total number of recorded crimes and a breakdown by crime category?

Response

Extent and Result of Searches to Locate Information

To locate the information relevant to your request searches were conducted within North Yorkshire Police. I can confirm that the information you have requested is held by North Yorkshire Police.  

Decision

I have today decided to disclose the located information to you.

Q1. Please see the table below which details the number of crimes recorded by North Yorkshire Police that include the terms ‘electric bike’, ‘e-bike’, ‘electric scooter’ or ‘escooter’ in the MO field from 01 April 2019 to 31 March 2024, broken down by year and crime type.

Financial Year	Count
2019/2020	13
2020/2021	19
2021/2022	23
2022/2023	71
2023/2024	139
Total	265
Crime Type	Count
Arson & Criminal Damage	6
Burglary	40
Drug Offences	1
Fraud	4
Possession Of Weapons	1
Public Order Offences	4
Robbery	2
Theft: All Other Theft	11
Theft: Bicycle Theft	176
Theft: Shoplifting	6
Vehicle Offences	8
Violence Against The Person	6
Total	265

Section 40 – Personal Information

I have disassociated the tables and exempted an annual breakdown for the crime type pursuant to section 40(2) – Personal Information. This is to refrain from particular incidents becoming identifiable and consequently the personal details of any persons involved being disclosed.

Where an individual can be identified by such data, releasing it would clearly breach the first data protection principle of being ‘fair’ to the data subject.

Section 17 of the Act requires North Yorkshire Police, when refusing to provide such information (because the information is exempt) to provide you the applicant with a notice which: (a) states that fact, (b) specifies the exemption in question and (c) states (if that would not otherwise be apparent) why the exemption applies.

Section 40(2) is an absolute class based exemption, which does not require a public interest test, but requires the balancing of the legitimate interests of the public against the interests of the individual under the first Data Protection Principle; in that processing of personal data must be lawful and fair (DPA 2018 35(1), EUGDPR Article 5(1)).

This exemption applies because the right given under the FOI Act to request official information held by public authorities does not apply to the personal data of third parties where disclosure of that information would not be fair to the individual, and where there is no legitimate public interest in disclosure.

In all the circumstances of the case it has been determined that the duty to the individual under the Data Protection Act 2018 & EU General Data Protection Regulations, and the public interest in maintaining the exemption from disclosure of personal information held by the force in such instances, outweighs the public interest in disclosure.  In this instance, personal information can only be disclosed to the individual concerned. 

Releasing personal details to a person other than the data subject would not only breach the data subject’s Data Protection rights it may also breach the obligations placed on an authority under the European Convention on Human Rights

Pursuant to Section 17(1) of the Act this letter acts as a refusal notice under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 in relation to your request.

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.