Dog Attacks 2018 to 2023
The Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) places two duties on public authorities:
Unless exemptions apply, the first duty (at Section 1(1)(a) is to confirm or deny whether the information specified in a request is held.
The second duty (at Section 1(1)(b) is to disclose information that has been confirmed as being held.
However, where exemptions are relied upon (Section 17 of FOIA), there is a requirement to provide the applicant with an explanation either:
- a) stating the fact
- b) detailing the exemption(s) in question and
- c) why the exemption applies (if not apparent).
Information Request
Could I please have the information sent back to me on email, as a year on year breakdown:
1) How many dog attacks have there been from January 20th 2018 to now?
2) What was the relationship between the victim and the dogs? (E.g. Pet, random dog attack, dog walker)
3) What injuries were sustained and what was the outcome? (E.g. Were victims hospitalised/died/sustained life-changing injuries)
4) What was the breed of dog involved in each attack?
5) What happened to the dogs following the attacks? (E.g. Were they rehomed/destroyed)
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 – In respect of Questions 2, 3, 4, & 5, Essex Police are unable to provide a data report as the details are not held in a readily extractable format.
Each Dog Attack incident file would need to be manually reviewed in order to determine if any of the requested details had been input into Free Text fields of our systems or as notes within any investigation files. To carry out this review and to extract data and further accurately filter out those relevant to this request especially over the timeframe requested and based on the different strands of recording within the timescales within the FOI act would be excessive.
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 report as follows:
Caveat: The data is correct as at 14/02/2023.
The date period is as requested, from 20/01/2018 to 31/01/2023.
The Command and Control System – STORM was used and Data is based upon where the Final Call Type Description Code is: DOG DANG and / or DANG DOG:
|
Grand Total |
859 |
790 |
808 |
870 |
1021 |
77 |
|
Month / Year |
2018 |
2019 |
2020 |
2021 |
2022 |
2023 |
|
January |
19 |
46 |
59 |
58 |
65 |
77 |
|
February |
52 |
50 |
40 |
57 |
68 |
|
|
March |
66 |
45 |
56 |
78 |
84 |
|
|
April |
104 |
72 |
67 |
82 |
86 |
|
|
May |
91 |
90 |
71 |
75 |
107 |
|
|
June |
92 |
86 |
70 |
90 |
102 |
|
|
July |
102 |
73 |
94 |
88 |
97 |
|
|
August |
100 |
90 |
87 |
75 |
97 |
|
|
September |
67 |
75 |
76 |
71 |
99 |
|
|
October |
82 |
63 |
57 |
60 |
86 |
|
|
November |
37 |
58 |
67 |
80 |
52 |
|
|
December |
47 |
42 |
64 |
56 |
78 |
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.
Related Documents/Links
Dangerous Dogs Seized and Destroyed in 2022
Offences 008/21 & 008/22 - Dogs 2017 to 2022
Seized Dogs June 2019 to May 2020
Seizures of Dangerous & Banned Breed Dogs 2022
Types of Dogs Seized by the Police for Being Dangerously Out of Control 2019 to 2021