Crimes where recorded text refers to ‘machete’, ‘sword’, or ‘zombie knife’

Response

I’m looking into the numbers of crimes involving large blades, specifically machetes, swords and zombie knives

I am requesting the following information under the Freedom of Information Act.

Please can you tell me the following:

Q1: For the years 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023 how many crimes were logged by your force where a machete was recorded as being an element in the offence? (Note: I would hope that this could be achieved by a computer search on the MO of crimes for the words “machete” or variants of the spelling to include “machette” and “machetes”).

 

You have requested information relating to key word searches for specific terms.  We have provided data below based on a text search of for the specified terms either within the MO or anywhere within the occurrence enquiry log.

Please note that results based on key word searches can be misleading and the data they produce do not constitute a reliable basis from which to draw wider conclusions.  This is because the terms may appear within the MO or occurrence log for any number of reasons, regardless of how relevant they are to the occurrence itself.  Equally, occurrences that may in fact be related to the subject of a request would not be included in results if the specific search terms were not recorded.

 

With the above caveat in mind, we have also provided an additional table for each question, showing the number of occurrences where, in addition to the relevant text appearing in the occurrence log, the weapon type ‘bladed implement’ has been recorded in the data field for ‘weapons used’.  Please note that this may not capture all instances involving a relevant weapon, as the ‘weapons used’ data field is not mandatory and has been left blank in some cases.

 

As you can see in the below charts for questions 1, 2 and 3, we have been able to provide a breakdown for offence group, instead of the Home Office subgroup. Reasons for this are explained below.

Please find below data for crimes where the word ‘Machete’, or one of the variants specified, was recorded. Those occurrences that also had ‘Bladed Implement’ recorded as a weapon used are shown in the table further below.

 

Machete	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023	Sum:
Arson and Criminal Damage	44	40	33	50	60	227
Burglary	51	35	31	47	41	205
Drug Offences	28	46	59	51	64	248
Miscellaneous Crimes Against Society	9	16	15	14	18	72
Non Recordable	1	2	3		6	12
Possession of Weapons	41	57	60	72	93	323
Public Order Offences	119	151	188	177	221	856
Robbery	27	39	33	47	97	243
Sexual Offences	18	12	16	33	41	120
Theft	11	16	12	6	26	71
Vehicle Offences	4	6	9	11	25	55
Violence Against The Person	240	335	344	352	497	1768
					1	1
Sum:	593	755	803	860	1190	4201

 

Weapon Used + Machete Search	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023	Sum:
Bladed implement	157	201	243	257	390	1248

 

Q2: For the years 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023 how many crimes were logged by your force where a sword was recorded as being an element in the offence?

 

Please find below data for crimes where the term ‘sword’ was recorded.  Those occurrences that also had ‘Bladed Implement’ recorded as a weapon used are shown in the table further below.

 

 

Sword	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023	Sum:
Arson and Criminal Damage	12	14	11	20	22	79
Burglary	22	15	18	25	20	100
Crime Related Incident			1			1
Drug Offences	14	21	16	20	22	93
Miscellaneous Crimes Against Society	2	10	4	9	9	34
Non Recordable	1	1	1	4	4	11
Possession of Weapons	22	27	30	33	56	168
Public Order Offences	50	53	54	65	47	269
Robbery	12	4	8	15	11	50
Sexual Offences	22	15	17	17	18	89
Theft	13	19	16	14	16	78
Vehicle Offences	8	3	5	5	6	27
Violence Against The Person	130	125	138	146	196	735
Sum:	308	307	319	373	427	1734

 

Weapon Used + Sword Search	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023	Sum:
Bladed implement	57	50	63	81	84	335

 

Q3: For the years 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023 how many crimes were logged by your force where a zombie knife or zombie sword was recorded as being an element in the offence?

Please find below data for crimes where the term ‘Zombie knife’ and ‘Zombie Knives’ was recorded.  Those occurrences that also had ‘Bladed Implement’ recorded as a weapon used are shown in the table further below.

 

Zombie Knife	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023	Sum:
Arson and Criminal Damage		2	6	4	4	16
Burglary	2	1	5	6	8	22
Drug Offences	1	7	13	17	15	53
Miscellaneous Crimes Against Society			1	8	1	10
Non Recordable			1		1	2
Possession of Weapons	3	9	15	17	46	90
Public Order Offences	2	4	17	11	18	52
Robbery	2	3	12	2	13	32
Sexual Offences		1	2	4	3	10
Theft	1	1	1	1	4	8
Vehicle Offences			3	1	2	6
Violence Against The Person	10	22	33	38	49	152
Sum:	21	50	109	109	164	453

 

Weapon Used + Zombie Knife Search	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023	Sum:
Bladed implement	7	13	39	32	61	152

 

 

Q4: Please provide me with a table showing a breakdown of the crimes from Question 1 that are ‘linked’ to machete/s by its mention in the MO for 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023 by offence subgroup as per the Home Office counting rules.

 

Q5: Please provide me with a table showing a breakdown of the crimes from Question 2 that are ‘linked’ to sword/s by its mention in the MO for 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023 by offence subgroup as per the Home Office counting rules.

 

Q6: Please provide me with a table showing a breakdown of the crimes from Question 3 that are ‘linked’ to zombie knife/knives by its mention in the MO for 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023 by offence subgroup as per the Home Office counting rules.

 

The ICO advises that: “If it is not possible to give the information requested in the way originally specified, helping the applicant by discussing the provision of information in an alternative format they would accept; helping an applicant to focus their request, perhaps by informing them of the types of information available within the requested category”.

 

In relation to the above questions 4, 5 and 6, your request has been considered and I am not obliged to provide the information in the format requested as to provide the information by offence subgroup as per the Home Office counting rules as you have asked would identify personal information. This is because the offence subgroups are very specific and could identify specific incidents given that specific weapon types were mentioned within the MO or crime report. In order to assist you in providing some useful information, we have looked at providing the data by a different grouping, however this offence grouping still provides enough detail and risks identifying an incident.

 

The exemption applicable to this is;

 

• Section 40(2), third party personal information.

 

This is an Absolute exemption so therefore there is no requirement to conduct a harm or public interest test. Any information is exempt from disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act if it relates to or is supplied by another individual and disclosure of that information would contravene any of the data protection principles set out in:

 

(a) Article 5(1) of the GDPR, and

(b) Section 34(1) of the Data Protection Act 2018;

 

A Freedom of Information Disclosure is a disclosure to the world. Therefore information that is provided can be viewed by any member of the public. To provide the information together as you have requested may have severe consequences. For example, an individual may be identified by another member of the public. Alternatively an individual could identify themselves, and be aware that their personal data has been used unlawfully.

 

Should the information be provided in a format in which a living individual could be identified this would constitute personal data. This would then become a breach of rights provided under the Data Protection Act 2018. Information held on an individual by Avon and Somerset Constabulary is done so lawfully and is used for a policing purpose in line with the principles set out in the GDPR. Our privacy policy can be viewed here.

 

This serves as a partial refusal notice under section 17(1) of the FOI Act.