Parcel Theft Offences 2023 to 2024

Publication Number: 1556 

FOI Number: 20580

 

Information Request 

Q1 How many instances of parcel theft (i.e. parcels stolen from somebody’s doorstep, or other cases where thieves steal a package, for example by impersonating a delivery person or homeowner) were reported between the following dates? (NOTE: If the request will be too time-consuming, please share the most recent cases first)

- 01/08/2023 – 31/07/2024

Q2 If possible, can you share the number of reported instances of parcel theft (i.e. parcels stolen from somebody’s doorstep, or other cases where thieves steal a package, for example by impersonating a delivery person or homeowner) by month for each of the date ranges provided in question one or, if this is not possible, any data that would make it possible to calculate this?

Q3 If possible, can you share either the total reported value of stolen parcels for the date ranges provided in question one or, if this is not possible, any data that would make it possible to calculate this?

Q4 If possible, can you share the most common time of day when parcels were stolen (using the date ranges provided in question one) in the following format, or, if not possible, any data that would make it possible to calculate this?

- A - 09.01 – 17.00

- B - 17.01 – 22.00

- C - 22.01 – 09.00

Q5 If possible, can you share the most common age of the people reporting theft (for the date ranges provided in question one) in the following format, or any data that would make it possible to calculate this?

- A - 21 and under

- B - 22-34

- C - 35-44

- D - 45-54

- E - 55-64

- F - 65 and over

Q6 If possible, can you estimate how long (hours per month) in total that your employees spent on any work relating to reported theft of parcels?

Q7 If possible, can you share the number of reports you received split by type of dwelling/address where the reported incident took place?

-Detatched house or bungalow

-Semi-detatched or terraced house

-Apartment/flat

-Office/business

-Any other

 

FOI Duty   

First Duty – Essex Police holds some of the information relating to your request  

Second Duty – See below  

Fact - It is not possible to extract and verify all the data in your request  

Exemption - Section 12(1)  

Refusal - Section 17(5) of FOIA  

 

Reasoning – Essex Police are unable to provide a comprehensive data report to meet this request as the data is not available in a readily extractable format, nor is it held on a central log. 

 

With regard to Question 7, Essex Police is unable to report on the numbers of recorded parcel theft crimes broken down by the type of dwelling where the offence was reported as taking place as this is not readily extractable information from our crime recording system. To attempt to answer this question would require a manual examination of each recorded parcel theft crime in the desired time period to ascertain whether the specific dwelling type was recorded in the investigation notes, extracting any relevant information found and then collating it into a bespoke report.

 

To establish if information is held would, therefore, exceed the time and cost limits under the FOIA and would additionally qualify as the creation of data as the results cannot be processed by means of purely sorting or filtering data sources or running a database query tool. There is no requirement under the act to create data purely to answer FOI requests. 

 

Duty to assist – When refusing a request on cost (Section 12(1)/12(2)), outside of the act and in effort to assist we can provide the following 

 

Essex Police can however assist as follows: 

 

Caveat: The data is correct as at 04 September 2024 

 

To address Questions 1 to 5, please see the following information:

 

Notes                                                                                

- Offences were identified by:

• The offence title of Theft of Mail.
• Removal of offences containing the words "letter/s" or "mail".                                      

- Not all offences had the value of the stolen property recorded. Therefore the total value is only reflective of that proportion of the offences where this information was recorded.                               

- It should be noted that in offences such as Theft, it is often not known exactly when the offence was committed due to the nature of the crime. The victim will therefore provide dates and times between which the offence could have occurred. Due to the element of estimation in these dates and times, data has been based on the date and time the offence was reported to Essex Police.

 

Q1. How many instances of parcel theft (i.e. parcels stolen from somebody’s doorstep, or other cases where thieves steal a package, for example by impersonating a delivery person or homeowner) were reported between the following dates? (NOTE: If the request will be too time-consuming, please share the most recent cases first) - 01/08/2023 – 31/07/2024

A. 428 offences.

 

Q2. If possible, can you share the number of reported instances of parcel theft (i.e. parcels stolen from somebody’s doorstep, or other cases where thieves steal a package, for example by impersonating a delivery person or homeowner) by month for each of the date ranges provided in question one or, if this is not possible, any data that would make it possible to calculate this?

 

A. Numbers of Parcel Theft Offences by Month – August 2023 to July 2024

Month	No. of Offences
Aug-23	40
Sep-23	53
Oct-23	37
Nov-23	48
Dec-23	66
Jan-24	46
Feb-24	25
Mar-24	24
Apr-24	22
May-24	21
Jun-24	30
Jul-24	16
Total	428

 

Q3. If possible, can you share either the total reported value of stolen parcels for the date ranges provided in question one or, if this is not possible, any data that would make it possible to calculate this?

A. Of the 428 offences, 193 had a stolen property value recorded. The total value for these 193 offences was £302,686.14.                                                        

 

Q4 If possible, can you share the most common time of day when parcels were stolen (using the date ranges provided in question one) in the following format, or, if not possible, any data that would make it possible to calculate this?

- A - 09.01 – 17.00

- B - 17.01 – 22.00

- C - 22.01 – 09.00

 

A. Numbers of Parcel Theft Offences by Recorded Time Period – August 2023 to July 2024

Time Period (reported)	No. of Offences
09:01 to 17:00	253
17:01 to 22:00	123
22:01 to 09:00	52
Total	428

 

Q5. If possible, can you share the most common age of the people reporting theft (for the date ranges provided in question one) in the following format, or any data that would make it possible to calculate this?

- A - 21 and under

- B - 22-34

- C - 35-44

- D - 45-54

- E - 55-64

- F - 65 and over

 

A. Numbers of Parcel Theft Offences by Recorded Victim Age – August 2023 to July 2024

Age Range	No. of Offences
21 and under	36
22-34	153
35-44	106
45-54	50
54-64	49
65 and over	21
(age not recorded)	13
Total	428

 

Q6. If possible, can you estimate how long (hours per month) in total that your employees spent on any work relating to reported theft of parcels?

A. Information not held.

 

Every effort is made to ensure that the data provided by Essex Police is accurate and complete. However, Essex Police systems are designed primarily for the management of individual cases and not for the purposes of providing data to answer specific FOI enquiries. Please note although data can be extracted from a number of sources via database queries, the results may be subject to inaccuracies. Care should be taken to understand our return when considering the interpretation or further use of the data.

 

Headline data on Theft offences by district between August 2023 and June 2024 can be found within the monthly Essex Police performance reports published by the Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner for Essex:

Essex Police Performance - Essex Police, Fire & Crime Commissioner (pfcc.police.uk)

 

The following article available via our publication scheme may also be of interest:

Incidents of Postage Theft 2019 - 2022 | Essex Police