Pet Abduction
Date of request: 16 December 2024
Reference: 1500-24
Request
- What were the total number of dog theft crimes in 2023 (monthly breakdown if possible)?
- What was the outcome (charge/summons, community resolution, active investigation, evidential difficulties, no suspect identified) for each dog theft crime in 2023?
- How many dogs were listed with each dog theft crime in 2023?
- If this question doesn’t take us beyond the time required for free FOI feedback, can details about stolen dog breed, gender, age, and location of theft (walk, home, garden, outside shop, from car etc) also be provided for 2023 please?
- If this question doesn’t take us beyond the time required for free FOI feedback, can postcode of recorded crime and CRN be included?
Response
Question 1
The Pet Abduction Act 2024 came into effect in August 2024 which has made ‘Abduction of a pet dog/cat’ an offence, but prior to that it would be recorded as a theft/burglary where the property type stolen would be recorded as ‘dog’.
Please find below table which provides the number of dog thefts for 2023, broken down by month.
Please note that this may not include any crimes where the property was recorded within the body of the crime report.
| Apr | 1 | 1 | ||||||
| May | 1 | 1 | ||||||
| Jun | 1 | 1 | 2 | |||||
| Aug | 1 | 1 | ||||||
| Dec | 1 | 1 | 2 | |||||
| Total | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 7 |
Question 2
Please find below table which provides the outcome for the above crimes where a dog was recorded as being stolen.
| Outcome | Sum of Count |
| OC15 – Sus/Insuff.Evidence | 2 |
| OC16 – Sus/Victim Declines | 1 |
| OC18 – No Sus / No Line Enq / Filed | 4 |
| Total | 7 |
Question 3
There was 1 dog listed for each crime.
Question 4
Question 5
In relation to questions 4 and 5, I am not obliged to provide the information in the format requested as to provide all the information together as you have asked as it would describe a specific incident and would identify personal information. 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.