Express & Star

Snowball and selfie-stick crimes among Staffordshire Police's bizarre Freedom of Information requests

Have you ever wondered how many complaints are made to police about snowballs being thrown or how many crimes are reported involving 'selfie sticks'?

Published

These are some of the bizarre requests which have been made to Staffordshire Police this year under the Freedom of Information Act (FOI requests).

The force is currently under siege from probes from the public and is having to allocate more staff to handle requests.

Between January 1 and March 31 this year Staffordshire Police received 313 FOIs - 50 more than the same period in 2014.

Specialist data analysts are able to handle the bulk of FOIs but the rest fall on the shoulders of just two other members of staff.

The deluge has resulted in the force failing the statutory 20-day maximum response target in some cases because of a back log.

While the force insist most submissions are serious they said some probes from the media had questionable reporting value.

Incidentally Staffordshire Police had no record of crimes reported where the words 'selfie stick' or 'monopod' had been used.

They were also unable to find out how many people complained about snowballs because it would have involved researching every single incident.

Force spokesman David Bailey said other problems were that FOI requests were becoming more complicated and companies looking to sell goods to the police are using them to gain information.

He added: "We are looking at ways to make our data more accessible and to allow those with specific interests to analysis data themselves, however we must always protect personal information about victims or witnesses being released with makes this particularly challenging and time consuming.

"We are committed to being as open and transparent as possible and we are working to reduce the backlog of FOI's as quickly as possible.

"In terms of recruitment, we are currently looking at ways of gaining support for the team who deal with FOI's from within existing resources within the force."

Staffordshire's Police and Crime Commissioner Matthew Ellis said: "Honest and independent scrutiny by the public is crucial as we strive to set the bar higher and create a new dawn of transparency in policing.

"Making a Freedom of Information Act application is just one avenue that can be used to scrutinise the police.

"I would encourage residents to get more directly involved by joining Safer Neighbourhood Panels which are being set up in local areas across Staffordshire.

"These give people the chance to influence policing at the most local level in their communities, as well as holding their local policing commander to account."

FOI's came into full-effect in 2005 following the Freedom of Information Act 2000. The legislation gives members of the public the power to request information from public bodies and be sent a response within 20 working days.

Sorry, we are not accepting comments on this article.