Intelligence-Led Policing

Request Number: FOI/15985

Category: Operational policing, Investigations and Events - Investigations and Operations

Subject: Intelligence-Led Policing

Request and Answer: 
Your request for information has now been considered. In respect of Section 1(1)(a) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) and we can neither confirm nor deny that the Police Service of Northern Ireland 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. 

Please provide the following information for the period from 2021 to current with a breakdown by year for ALL requested information.

Questions 1 A-C 
General Intelligence-Led Policing Data:
a) Please state how many times intelligence has led to a proactive policing response (e.g., increased patrols, officer deployment, or engagement) in a specific Belfast neighbourhood to prevent anticipated low-level crime or anti-social behaviour.
b) Please provide a breakdown by Neighbourhood Policing Team area or relevant police district and the action/response undertaken, by year.
c) For these proactive responses, please provide anonymised statistics on the outcome (e.g., crime prevented, crime displacement, intelligence gathered). 

Questions 2 A- D
Handling of Specific Intelligence:
a) For the same period, please provide data on the number of non-crime incidents reported by members of the public that have been assessed as containing actionable intelligence.
Please state the number of these incidents that resulted in:
b) A direct operational response (e.g., passive surveillance, proactive patrols).
c) A referral to another agency (e.g., social services, youth justice).
d) Intelligence being logged for future reference. 

Questions 3 A and B 
Decision-Making on Intelligence: 

Please provide details on the standard operating procedures or decision-making framework used by the PSNI to evaluate and act upon intelligence related to low-level crime and anti-social behaviour.
Specifically, please provide anonymised examples of:
a) An intelligence report concerning a potential low-level crime where a decision was made to act.
b) An intelligence report where a decision was made not to act, with an explanation of the rationale. 

Question 4
Performance Metrics:
a) Please provide details on any internal performance metrics used to evaluate the effectiveness of intelligence-led policing specifically in relation to the prevention of low-level crime and anti-social behaviour in the Belfast area.

Answers
Section 17 (5) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 requires the PSNI, when refusing to provide such information (because the cost of compliance exceeds the appropriate limit) to provide you the applicant with a notice which states that fact.

It is estimated that the cost of complying with your request for information would exceed the “appropriate costs limit” under section 12 (1) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000. Section 12 of the FOIA allows a public authority to refuse to deal with a request where it estimates that it would exceed the appropriate limit to either comply with the request in its entirety or confirm or deny whether the requested information is held. The estimate must be reasonable in the circumstances of the case. The ‘appropriate limit’ is currently £600 for central government and £450 for all other public authorities including PSNI. The relevant Regulations which define the appropriate limit for section 12 purposes are The Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulation 2004 SI 2004 No 3244. These are known as the ‘Fees Regulations’ for brevity.

Regulation 4(3) of the Fees Regulations states that a public authority can take into account the costs it reasonably expects to incur in carrying out the following permitted activities in complying with the request:

(i) determining whether the information is held;

(ii) locating the information, or a document containing it;

(iii) retrieving the information, or a document containing it; and

(iv) extracting the information from a document containing it.

Under those regulations PSNI can calculate the time spent on each of these permitted activities at £25 per hour (thus if the activity(s) takes more than 18 hours PSNI will be in excess of the ‘appropriate limit’).

Under Section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, if a public authority estimates that it would exceed the appropriate limit to confirm whether or not the requested information is held, under Section 12 (2) of the Act, it does not have to deal with the substance of the request.

In response to your requests, PSNI can advise that the information requested is not recorded in the manner requested and unfortunately there is no search mechanism to extract and or ascertain if the may or may not be held. PSNI estimate even to search for example under the subject ‘pre-planned events’ and / or ‘police generated activity incidents’, as there are in excess of 2000 each year alone, it would exceed the 18 hour cost limit. In addition, PSNI can neither confirm nor deny that information may or may not be recorded within either one of these categories.

In accordance with the Freedom of Information Act 2000, this letter should be considered as a Refusal Notice, and the request has therefore been closed.

Section 16 ‘Duty to Assist’
Unfortunately on this occasion PSNI are unable to provide or offer any refinement to your requests