Offensive Weapons in Schools and Education Establishments 2013 to 2023
Keywords
Offensive, Weapons, Education, Establishments, Type, College, Secondary, School, Age, Sex, Suspect, Location, Premises, HMIC, Possession, Recorded, Academy, Gender, Outcome, Victim.
Publication Number
PUB 1070
Publication Name
Offensive Weapons in Schools and Education Establishments 2013 to 2023
FOI Reference Number
19084
Request Title
Data on Knife Crime – Locn School – last 5 years
Date Range
01/01/2018 to 25/09/2023
Information Requested
Please provide the following, under the Freedom of Information Act, for the past 5 calendar years, from 2018 to the present and where the location is a school:
1) The number of knife crime offences split by:
- a) offence type
- b) knife type
- c) what the knife was used for (ie stabbing, threatening)
- d) Victim and suspect demographics, including but not limited to age, gender, ethnicity and relationship between victim and suspect
Disclosure with Exemptions
Part Disclosure with Section 12 Exemption
Information Correct as at
28 September 2023
Date of Disclosure
12 October 2023
Related Documents/Links
Published Items - Schools | Essex Police
FOI 19084 Response
With regard to Question 1) c), Essex Police are unable to report on the specific use of a knife in a knife related offence as this is not readily extractable information. This would require a manual review of each knife related offence to ascertain whether the specific use of the knife was described in the incident notes, extracting this information and then assembling it into a bespoke report. To establish if information is held would, therefore, exceed the time and cost limits under the FOIA and would 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 report as follows:
Caveat: The data is correct as at 28 September 2023
Notes
- The data was taken from the Athena crime recording system, where the offence was 'possession of an article with a blade or point' and/ or the knife crime flag was used, and the location premises type was 'school'.
- The data is from 01/01/2018 to 25/09/2023 inclusive.
Knife Crime Offences
Numbers of Knife Related Offences at a School by Offence Type – 01 January 2018 to 25 September 2023
|
Offence Type |
Total |
|
DAMAGE AND ARSON OFFENCES |
6 |
|
MISC CRIMES AGAINST SOCIETY |
1 |
|
POSSESS WEAPON OFFENCES |
138 |
|
PUBLIC ORDER OFFENCES |
15 |
|
ROBBERY |
4 |
|
SEXUAL OFFENCES |
2 |
|
VIOLENCE AGAINST THE PERSON |
81 |
|
Grand Total |
247 |
Victim Demographics
Numbers of Victims by Age Group – 01 January 2018 to 25 September 2023
|
Victim Age |
Total |
|
0 - 18 |
120 |
|
18+ |
17 |
|
Grand Total |
137 |
Numbers of Victims by Ethnicity Type - January 2018 to 25 September 2023
|
Victim Ethnicity |
Total |
|
Asian / Black |
15 |
|
Unknown |
34 |
|
White - European |
88 |
|
Grand Total |
137 |
Numbers of Victims by Gender - January 2018 to 25 September 2023
|
Victim Gender |
Total |
|
Female |
39 |
|
Male |
98 |
|
Grand Total |
137 |
Suspect Demographics
Numbers of Suspects by Age Group – 01 January 2018 to 25 September 2023
|
Suspect Age |
Total |
|
0 - 18 |
192 |
|
18+ |
6 |
|
Grand Total |
198 |
Numbers of Suspects by Ethnicity Type - January 2018 to 25 September 2023
|
Suspect Ethnicity |
Total |
|
Asian / Black |
23 |
|
Unknown |
46 |
|
White - European |
129 |
|
Grand Total |
198 |
Numbers of Suspects by Gender - January 2018 to 25 September 2023
|
Suspect Gender |
Total |
|
Female |
30 |
|
Male |
165 |
|
Unknown |
3 |
|
Grand Total |
198 |
No further breakdowns of the data by specific year, victim / suspect age, victim / suspect ethnicity or victim / suspect relationship will be provided, as to do so may identify individuals.
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.
FOI Reference Number
16488
Request Title
Offensive Weapons in Education Establishments 2016 to 2021
Date Range
01 December 2016 to 30 November 2021
Information Requested
1. How many offensive weapons were found in educational establishments in the past five years? (From 1st December 2016-30th November 2021.)
For each recorded find, please include:
- The date
- The type of offensive weapon
- The type of establishment (e.g college or secondary school)
- The age and sex of the suspect (if known and possible)
- The outcome (e.g whether there was an arrest)
2. How many crimes were recorded in educational establishments in the past five years? (From 1st December 2016-30th November 2021.)
For each recorded incident please include:
- The date
- The type of establishment (e.g college or secondary school)
- The crime type
- The age and sex of the suspect (if known and possible)
- The age and sex of the victim(s) (if known and possible given the time limitations)
Disclosure with Exemptions
Part Disclosure with Section 12 Exemption
Information Correct as at
11 January 2022
Date of Disclosure
02 February 2022
Related Documents/Links
FOI 16488 Response
Having completed enquiries within Essex Police in respect of Section 1(1)(a), Essex Police does hold information relating to your request, however, the obligation of Section 1(1)(b) cannot be met as Essex Police does not hold all the information requested in a format that allows it to be retrieved within the time and cost limits of FOI.
When responding to a request for information under the terms of the FOIA, a public authority is not obliged to provide information if the authority estimates that the cost of the retrieval of the information requested would be in excess of £450 (equivalent to 18 hours work). The costs criteria relates to a request in its entirety, which means that if we cannot retrieve all of the information requested within the costs limit, we are not obliged to retrieve any of the information requested.
Section 12(1) of the FOIA states that a public authority is not obliged to:
“…comply with a request for information if the authority estimates that the cost of complying with the request would exceed the appropriate limit.”
The following explanation outlines the difficulty Essex Police has in answering your request:
In relation to Question 1, Essex Police are unable to accurately extract the level of detail in relation to the type of offensive weapon found in educational establishments for the requested periods from our current systems. Essex Police systems are designed primarily for the management of individual cases and not primarily for the production of statistical information for FOI responses. This request would entail manually extracting the requested data and reviewing each crime record one by one to establish if information is held as there is no field where the offensive weapon type is recorded. To establish if information is held would, therefore, exceed the time and cost limits under the FOIA and would 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.
Consequently, and to this extent, Essex Police are exempt from the duty to provide information you have requested under the provisions of Section 12(1) of the FOIA. Therefore, and in accordance with Section 17(1) of the FOIA, this communication must act as a refusal notice to provide all of the information that could be interpreted as being captured by this part of your request.
Having said that and in an effort to assist, although excess cost removes the force’s obligations under the FOIA, Essex Police can confirm the following:
Caveats:
The data is correct as at 11 January 2022.
Dates: 01 December 2016 to 30 November 2021.
Please note the way the information is gathered is by searching text in the Location Premises Field Name and, therefore, in some instances the location data for School/Academy/College may not be in reference to an educational establishment and could be the name of a road for example if an offence took place on ‘School Road’ this will be returned in the filtered results. However, this method is still the best approach to providing the most complete picture of results. Please note that any keyword search may not be entirely accurate and any results would not necessarily answer your submission, and, therefore, could be highly inaccurate and misleading.
Data:
In relation to Question 1, we are unable to provide data on the type of offensive weapon found as this is not a recorded field. However, we have provided the number of Possession of Weapons Offences. The HMIC Crime Tree Level 3 Category has been used to select POSSESSION OF WEAPONS OFFENCES.
In relation to Question 2, the HMIC Crime Tree Level 3 Category has also been used for the Offence Type.
1. How many offensive weapons were found in educational establishments in the past five years? (From 1st December 2016-30th November 2021.)
Between 01 December 2016 and 30 November 2021 there were 242 Possession of Weapons Offences.
Please see below, the Location breakdowns:
|
Location |
2016 |
2017 |
2018 |
2019 |
2020 |
2021 |
|
Academy |
1 |
6 |
9 |
15 |
16 |
17 |
|
College |
1 |
7 |
5 |
4 |
0 |
0 |
|
School |
2 |
36 |
33 |
46 |
16 |
28 |
|
Total |
4 |
49 |
47 |
65 |
32 |
45 |
Please see below, the Suspect Age Group breakdowns:
|
Suspect Age Group |
2016 |
2017 |
2018 |
2019 |
2020 |
2021 |
|
Under 18 |
4 |
44 |
40 |
63 |
29 |
41 |
|
18-29 |
0 |
3 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
30-39 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
|
40-49 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
|
Not Recorded |
0 |
1 |
7 |
1 |
2 |
3 |
|
Total |
4 |
49 |
47 |
65 |
32 |
45 |
Please see below, the Suspect Gender breakdowns:
|
Suspect Gender |
2016 |
2017 |
2018 |
2019 |
2020 |
2021 |
|
Male |
4 |
42 |
37 |
57 |
27 |
31 |
|
Female |
0 |
6 |
3 |
7 |
3 |
9 |
|
Not Recorded |
0 |
1 |
7 |
1 |
2 |
5 |
|
Total |
4 |
49 |
47 |
65 |
32 |
45 |
Please see below, the Outcome breakdowns:
|
Outcome |
2016 |
2017 |
2018 |
2019 |
2020 |
2021 |
|
Type 1 - Charged/Summonsed/Postal Requisition |
0 |
6 |
2 |
4 |
2 |
0 |
|
Type 10 - Formal Action Against Offender is not in the Public Interest (Police) |
0 |
5 |
2 |
6 |
0 |
2 |
|
Type 11 - Prosecution Prevented-Named Suspect Identified But Is Below The Age Of Criminal Responsibility |
0 |
3 |
1 |
2 |
0 |
1 |
|
Type 14 - Evidential Difficulties Victim Based- Suspect Not Identified: Crime Confirmed But The Victim Either Declines Or Unable To Support Further Police Investigation To Identify The Offender |
0 |
0 |
3 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
|
Type 15 - Named Suspect Identified: Victim Supports Police Action But Evidential Difficulties Prevent Further Action |
0 |
4 |
2 |
6 |
3 |
2 |
|
Type 16 - Named Suspect Identified: Evidential Difficulties Prevent Further Action: Victim Does Not Support (Or Has Withdrawn Support From) Police Action |
0 |
4 |
1 |
6 |
2 |
0 |
|
Type 18 - Investigation Complete; No Suspect Identified. Crime Investigated As Far As Reasonably Possible-Case Closed Pending Further Investigative Opportunities Becoming Available |
0 |
1 |
3 |
1 |
2 |
1 |
|
Type 2 - Caution Youth |
0 |
5 |
10 |
5 |
7 |
3 |
|
Type 20 - Further action resulting from the crime report will be undertaken by another body or agency subject to the victim (or person acting on their behalf) being made aware of the act to be taken |
1 |
3 |
8 |
5 |
3 |
8 |
|
Type 21 - Further investigation resulting from crime report which could provide evidence sufficient to support formal action against the suspect is not in the public interest - police decision. |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
1 |
1 |
|
Type 22 - Diversionary, educational or intervention activity, resulting from the crime report, has been undertaken and it is not in the public interest to take any further action. |
0 |
0 |
0 |
6 |
5 |
11 |
|
Type 8 - Community resolution (Crime) |
3 |
18 |
15 |
22 |
7 |
11 |
|
Ongoing Investigations |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
3 |
|
Total |
4 |
49 |
47 |
65 |
32 |
45 |
2. How many crimes were recorded in educational establishments in the past five years? (From 1st December 2016-30th November 2021.)
Between 01 December 2016 and 30 November 2021 there were 11285 offences recorded in educational establishments.
Please see below, the Location breakdowns:
|
Location |
2016 |
2017 |
2018 |
2019 |
2020 |
2021 |
|
Academy |
19 |
456 |
498 |
660 |
379 |
477 |
|
College |
13 |
252 |
192 |
279 |
151 |
159 |
|
School |
113 |
1481 |
1720 |
1971 |
1138 |
1327 |
|
Total |
145 |
2189 |
2410 |
2910 |
1668 |
1963 |
Please see below, the Offence Type breakdowns:
|
Offence Type |
2016 |
2017 |
2018 |
2019 |
2020 |
2021 |
|
ALL OTHER THEFT OFFENCES |
14 |
193 |
191 |
223 |
92 |
74 |
|
ARSON |
0 |
9 |
8 |
15 |
15 |
13 |
|
BICYCLE THEFT |
8 |
110 |
84 |
96 |
49 |
50 |
|
BURGLARY - BUSINESS AND COMMUNITY |
0 |
107 |
120 |
105 |
62 |
42 |
|
BURGLARY - NON DOMESTIC |
12 |
40 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
BURGLARY - RESIDENTIAL |
0 |
10 |
8 |
14 |
13 |
5 |
|
CRIMINAL DAMAGE |
5 |
149 |
162 |
191 |
131 |
96 |
|
MISC CRIMES AGAINST SOCIETY |
2 |
53 |
69 |
104 |
56 |
62 |
|
OTHER SEXUAL OFFENCES |
4 |
124 |
149 |
169 |
123 |
196 |
|
POSSESSION OF DRUGS |
3 |
29 |
29 |
44 |
28 |
21 |
|
POSSESSION OF WEAPONS OFFENCES |
4 |
49 |
47 |
65 |
32 |
45 |
|
PUBLIC ORDER OFFENCES |
21 |
278 |
354 |
385 |
208 |
262 |
|
RAPE |
8 |
15 |
22 |
27 |
10 |
19 |
|
ROBBERY - PERSONAL |
0 |
7 |
10 |
17 |
7 |
8 |
|
SHOPLIFTING |
1 |
1 |
3 |
1 |
1 |
3 |
|
THEFT FROM THE PERSON |
1 |
16 |
9 |
10 |
4 |
5 |
|
TRAFFICKING OF DRUGS |
0 |
3 |
3 |
3 |
4 |
4 |
|
VEHICLE OFFENCES |
2 |
57 |
62 |
49 |
36 |
19 |
|
VIOLENCE WITH INJURY |
26 |
451 |
423 |
522 |
274 |
358 |
|
VIOLENCE WITHOUT INJURY |
34 |
488 |
657 |
870 |
523 |
681 |
|
Total |
145 |
2189 |
2410 |
2910 |
1668 |
1963 |
Please see below, the Suspect Age Group breakdowns:
|
Suspect Age Group |
2016 |
2017 |
2018 |
2019 |
2020 |
2021 |
|
Under 18 |
45 |
815 |
956 |
1281 |
688 |
918 |
|
18-29 |
4 |
147 |
105 |
135 |
101 |
93 |
|
30-39 |
8 |
133 |
170 |
160 |
97 |
99 |
|
40-49 |
7 |
78 |
81 |
97 |
57 |
59 |
|
50-59 |
1 |
46 |
34 |
25 |
24 |
39 |
|
60-69 |
0 |
16 |
10 |
18 |
4 |
8 |
|
70+ |
0 |
5 |
5 |
5 |
2 |
4 |
|
Not Recorded |
80 |
949 |
1049 |
1189 |
695 |
743 |
|
Total |
145 |
2189 |
2410 |
2910 |
1668 |
1963 |
Please see below, the Suspect Gender breakdowns:
|
Suspect Gender |
2016 |
2017 |
2018 |
2019 |
2020 |
2021 |
|
Male |
46 |
850 |
942 |
1159 |
694 |
799 |
|
Female |
19 |
384 |
403 |
542 |
268 |
392 |
|
Not Recorded/Unspecified |
80 |
955 |
1065 |
1209 |
706 |
772 |
|
Total |
145 |
2189 |
2410 |
2910 |
1668 |
1963 |
Please see below, the Victim Age Group breakdowns:
|
Victim Age Group |
2016 |
2017 |
2018 |
2019 |
2020 |
2021 |
|
Under 18 |
77 |
1094 |
1251 |
1542 |
872 |
1118 |
|
18-29 |
10 |
160 |
161 |
203 |
107 |
122 |
|
30-39 |
10 |
163 |
202 |
215 |
113 |
176 |
|
40-49 |
15 |
174 |
190 |
208 |
127 |
121 |
|
50-59 |
1 |
89 |
93 |
117 |
70 |
81 |
|
60-69 |
1 |
24 |
27 |
25 |
17 |
14 |
|
70+ |
0 |
4 |
8 |
12 |
3 |
5 |
|
Not Recorded |
31 |
481 |
478 |
588 |
359 |
326 |
|
Total |
145 |
2189 |
2410 |
2910 |
1668 |
1963 |
Please see below, the Victim Gender breakdowns:
|
Victim Gender |
2016 |
2017 |
2018 |
2019 |
2020 |
2021 |
|
Male |
53 |
881 |
999 |
1126 |
632 |
694 |
|
Female |
60 |
814 |
912 |
1160 |
665 |
906 |
|
Not Recorded/Unspecified/Unknown |
32 |
494 |
499 |
624 |
371 |
363 |
|
Total |
145 |
2189 |
2410 |
2910 |
1668 |
1963 |
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.
The Force Information Management Board chaired by the Deputy Chief Constable has oversight of the Force wide programme of work to improve the quality of Force data. This work has identified data quality leads in all key areas of the business including the Crime and Public Protection Command. Liaison between the Force Data Quality Team and the Crime and Public Protection Command lead for data quality will identify and resolve issues through a variety of mechanisms to ensure regular and appropriate supervisory oversight.
FOI Reference Number
17629
Request Title
Weapons Seized from Pupils in Schools 2017 to 2021
Date Range
2017 to 2021
Information Requested
Could you please supply me with the following information concerning the numbers of weapons seized from pupils in schools and the nature of these weapons, as outlined below:
Q1. How many weapons were seized from schools in the area covered by your constabulary in the years 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021?
Q2. What category of weapon were these and how many of each were there? Eg. 2 knives, 3 guns, 1 sword etc
Q3. How old were the pupils who the weapons were seized from?
Q4. How many of these incidents resulted in pupils being excluded from school?
Q5. How many of these incidents resulted in criminal prosecution for the pupils?
Disclosure with Exemptions
Full Refusal with Section 12 Exemption
Information Correct as at
30 November 2022
Date of Disclosure
30 November 2022
Related Documents/Links
N/A
FOI 17629 Response
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 Question 4, Essex Police are unable to provide a data report on the status of the Pupils being excluded from school as this is not information collected or ordinarily held by Essex Police. It may or may not be held in the free text fields within the crime report.
In respect of Question 5, Essex Police are unable to provide a data report as we do not retain prosecution data in a readily extractable format.
Essex Police are unable to provide data on the number of prosecutions or any further details on the prosecution results for offences referencing protests. This request would entail manually extracting the requested data, manually searching each record, cross referring on the investigation file as the process of referring to the CPS will be contained within each file and then the Police National Computer (PNC) to establish the outcome and conviction data.
Similarly, to determine the status of a pupil as ‘excluded at school’ would entail the same manual review process, to determine whether or not that detail had been entered into free text fields within the crime report, as the information may have been shared by the School and be relevant for safeguarding – which would take approximately 30 minutes per record to establish the facts – this would take considerable resource to achieve and, therefore, is regarded as excessive and would exceed the time and cost limits under the Act.
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 to support Question 1 & 2:
Our publication scheme is to be updated in the next year with new data as and when it becomes available through our Performance Analysis Unit who have been progressing a high volume of business and have struggled with resourcing.
Caveat: The data and links set out below and attached are from previous FOI disclosures and are correct as at 30/11/2022.
FOI 1:
The attached spreadsheet provides published data on this subject from September 2013 to August 2018 in Academic Years, by School, Weapon Type and includes Outcomes.
FOI 2:
Notes
- Information on the type of weapon is not available therefore no corresponding results are given.
- The monthly breakdown of crime volumes is given for each of the weapon offence categories.
- But the monthly breakdown for offenders by age and gender and if they were charged or not is not given because then there would be too much information that would not be clearly presentable. Instead, numbers of offenders by gender and age group are provided in the results tables.
- The same is true for the monthly breakdown of offences by location. The monthly numbers of weapons offences by school and district are not given because that would be too much information to present clearly. Instead, the volumes of crimes by districts and schools are highlighted in the data table.
- The number of offenders may be higher or lower than the total number of crimes recorded for a certain crime category. This is because one offender may commit multiple offences or more than one offender may have carried out a single crime.
A total of 19 crimes of possessing offensive weapons were recorded by Essex Police, where the offence location is a 'school', between April 2017 and April 2020. The breakdown of these offences are shown in Table 1 below:
|
Possessing offensive weapons crimes - April 2017 to April 2020 |
|||||
|
Month |
2017 |
2018 |
2019 |
2020 |
Monthly Total |
|
January |
1 |
1 |
|||
|
February |
1 |
1 |
2 |
||
|
March |
1 |
2 |
3 |
||
|
May |
3 |
3 |
6 |
||
|
June |
1 |
1 |
|||
|
July |
1 |
1 |
2 |
||
|
September |
1 |
1 |
|||
|
November |
1 |
1 |
2 |
||
|
December |
1 |
1 |
|||
|
Yearly Total |
2 |
7 |
9 |
1 |
19 |
Table 1: Monthly volumes of possessing offensive weapons crimes at a school premises from April 2017 to April 2020
A total of 97 crimes of possessing offensive weapons on school premises were recorded by Essex Police between April 2017 and April 2020. The breakdown of these offences are shown in Table 2 below:
|
Possessing offensive weapon on school premises - April 2017 to April 2020 |
|||||
|
Month |
2017 |
2018 |
2019 |
2020 |
Monthly Total |
|
January |
6 |
3 |
1 |
10 |
|
|
February |
1 |
4 |
4 |
9 |
|
|
March |
1 |
11 |
2 |
14 |
|
|
April |
1 |
3 |
3 |
7 |
|
|
May |
5 |
2 |
3 |
10 |
|
|
June |
3 |
2 |
3 |
8 |
|
|
July |
2 |
3 |
3 |
8 |
|
|
August |
2 |
2 |
|||
|
September |
3 |
1 |
4 |
||
|
October |
2 |
2 |
5 |
9 |
|
|
November |
4 |
4 |
4 |
12 |
|
|
December |
3 |
1 |
4 |
||
|
Yearly Total |
20 |
27 |
43 |
7 |
97 |
Table 2: Monthly volumes of possessing offensive weapons directly on school premises crimes from April 2017 to April 2020
A total of 21 crimes of threatening with offensive weapons on school premises were recorded by Essex Police between April 2017 and April 2020. The breakdown of these offences are shown in Table 3 below:
|
Threaten with offensive weapon on school premises - April 2017 to April 2020 |
|||||
|
Month |
2017 |
2018 |
2019 |
2020 |
Monthly Total |
|
January |
1 |
1 |
2 |
||
|
February |
0 |
||||
|
March |
0 |
||||
|
April |
1 |
1 |
|||
|
May |
1 |
1 |
2 |
||
|
June |
2 |
1 |
3 |
||
|
July |
1 |
2 |
3 |
||
|
August |
0 |
||||
|
September |
2 |
2 |
|||
|
October |
2 |
1 |
3 |
6 |
|
|
November |
2 |
2 |
|||
|
December |
0 |
||||
|
Yearly Total |
8 |
4 |
7 |
2 |
21 |
Table 3: Monthly volumes of threatening with offensive weapons on school premises crimes from April 2017 to April 2020
Only one crime of possessing firearm offences have been recorded, where the offence location is a 'school', between April 2017 and April 2020. This is shown in Table 4 below:
|
Possessing Firearm offences - April 2017 to April 2020 |
|
|
February 2018 |
1 |
|
Total |
1 |
Table 4: Possessing firearms crimes from April 2017 to April 2020
57 crimes of GBH Wounding were recorded by Essex Police, where the offence location is recorded as a 'school', between April 2017 and April 2020. The breakdown of these crimes is given in Table 5 below:
|
GBH Wounding offences - April 2017 to April 2020 |
|||||
|
Month |
2017 |
2018 |
2019 |
2020 |
Monthly Total |
|
January |
1 |
2 |
3 |
||
|
February |
2 |
2 |
4 |
||
|
March |
2 |
4 |
3 |
9 |
|
|
April |
2 |
1 |
3 |
||
|
May |
2 |
2 |
|||
|
June |
3 |
2 |
5 |
||
|
July |
1 |
1 |
1 |
3 |
|
|
August |
1 |
1 |
|||
|
September |
1 |
3 |
4 |
||
|
October |
2 |
2 |
3 |
7 |
|
|
November |
2 |
5 |
2 |
9 |
|
|
December |
3 |
4 |
7 |
||
|
Yearly Total |
11 |
20 |
21 |
5 |
57 |
Table 5: Monthly volumes of GBH Wounding offences from April 2017 to April 2020
No reports of Murder crimes were recorded by Essex Police, where the offence location was a 'school', between April 2017 and April 2020.
A total of 20 offenders were found to be in possession of offensive weapons at a school location (but not directly on school premises) between April 2017 and April 2020. The age and gender of these offenders and whether they were charged or not are highlighted in Table 6 below:
|
Offenders details - Possessing offensive weapons crimes - April 2017 to April 2020 |
|||
|
Age Group of offenders (for offensive weapons) |
Gender |
Charged or not charged (for offensive weapons) |
Number of Offenders |
|
11 to 21 |
Male |
No |
18 |
|
31 to 40 |
Male |
No |
1 |
|
Under 11 |
Male |
No |
1 |
|
Total |
20 |
||
Table 6: Age and gender details for all those offenders accused of possessing offensive weapons, where the location was recorded as a school, from April 2017 to April 2020
A total of 103 offenders were found to be in possession of offensive weapons directly on school premises between April 2017 and April 2020. The age and gender of the offenders and whether they were charged or not are highlighted in Table 7 below:
|
Offenders details - Possessing offensive weapons on school premises - April 2017 to April 2020 |
|||
|
Age Group of offenders (for offensive weapons) |
Gender |
Charged or not charged (for offensive weapons) |
Number of Offenders |
|
11 to 21 |
Female |
No |
13 |
|
11 to 21 |
Male |
No |
78 |
|
11 to 21 |
Male |
Yes |
4 |
|
Under 11 |
Female |
No |
2 |
|
Under 11 |
Male |
No |
6 |
|
Total |
103 |
||
Table 7: Age and gender details for all those offenders accused of possessing offensive weapons, directly on school premises, from April 2017 to April 2020
A total of 19 offenders were responsible for threatening with offensive weapons directly on school premises between April 2017 and April 2020. The age and gender of the offenders and whether they were charged or not are highlighted in Table 8 below:
|
Offenders details - Threatening with offensive weapons on school premises - April 2017 to April 2020 |
|||
|
Age Group of offenders (for offensive weapons) |
Gender |
Charged or not charged (for offensive weapons) |
Number of Offenders |
|
11 to 21 |
Male |
No |
14 |
|
11 to 21 |
Male |
Yes |
1 |
|
11 to 21 |
No |
1 |
|
|
Under 11 |
Male |
No |
3 |
|
Total |
19 |
||
Table 8: Age and gender details for all those offenders accused of possessing offensive weapons, directly on school premises, from April 2017 to April 2020
No offenders accused of possessing firearm weapons crimes, were recorded by Essex Police, at a school location between April 2017 and April 2020.
A total of 44 offenders were responsible for GBH Wounding at a school location (but not directly on school premises) between April 2017 and April 2020. The age and gender of the offenders and whether they were charged or not charged are highlighted in Table 9 below:
|
Offenders details - GBH Wounding - April 2017 to April 2020 |
|||
|
Age Group of offenders (for GBH wounding) |
Gender |
Charged or not charged (GBH offences) |
Number of Offenders |
|
11 to 21 |
Female |
No |
5 |
|
11 to 21 |
Female |
Yes |
1 |
|
11 to 21 |
Male |
No |
28 |
|
11 to 21 |
Male |
Yes |
1 |
|
21 to 30 |
Male |
No |
2 |
|
31 to 40 |
Male |
Yes |
1 |
|
41 to 50 |
Male |
No |
2 |
|
Over 60 |
Male |
No |
1 |
|
Under 11 |
Female |
No |
1 |
|
Under 11 |
Male |
No |
2 |
|
Total |
44 |
||
Table 9: Age and gender details for all those offenders accused of GBH Wounding at a school location from April 2017 to April 2020
No reports of Murder crimes and therefore, any offenders accused of murder crimes, were recorded by Essex Police, at a school location between April 2017 and April 2020.
All possession of offensive weapons crimes at a school location (but not directly on school premises) were recorded by Essex Police across 18 schools between April 2017 and April 2020.
The breakdown of these crimes by location are shown in table 10 below:
|
Possession of offensive weapons - Total Crimes by District |
|
|
Location District (Sector) |
Crimes by District |
|
Brentwood |
3 |
|
Castle Point |
2 |
|
Chelmsford |
2 |
|
Colchester |
2 |
|
Rochford |
1 |
|
Southend-on-Sea |
4 |
|
Thurrock |
3 |
|
Uttlesford |
1 |
|
Total |
18 |
Table 10: Locations for possession of offensive weapons crimes at a school recorded by Essex Police from April 2017 to April 2020
All possession of offensive weapons crimes happening directly on school premises were recorded by Essex Police across 97 schools between April 2017 and April 2020.
The breakdown of these crimes by location are shown in Table 11 below:
|
Possession of offensive weapon on school premises - Total Crimes by District |
|
|
Location District (Sector) |
Crimes by district |
|
Basildon |
8 |
|
Braintree |
7 |
|
Brentwood |
3 |
|
Castle Point |
8 |
|
Chelmsford |
11 |
|
Colchester |
14 |
|
Epping Forest |
3 |
|
Harlow |
5 |
|
Maldon |
3 |
|
Rochford |
3 |
|
Southend-on-Sea |
12 |
|
Tendring |
6 |
|
Thurrock |
10 |
|
Uttlesford |
4 |
|
Total |
97 |
Table 11: Locations for possession of offensive weapons crimes directly on a school premises recorded by Essex Police from April 2017 to April 2020
All threatening with offensive weapons offences happening directly on school premises were recorded by Essex Police across 97 schools between April 2017 and April 2020.
The breakdown of these crimes by location are shown in table 12 below:
|
Threaten with offensive weapon on school premises - Total Crimes by District |
|
|
Location District (Sector) |
Crimes by district |
|
Basildon |
3 |
|
Braintree |
1 |
|
Chelmsford |
2 |
|
Colchester |
1 |
|
Epping Forest |
3 |
|
Harlow |
2 |
|
Southend-on-Sea |
2 |
|
Tendring |
3 |
|
Thurrock |
4 |
|
Total |
21 |
Table 12: Locations for threatening with offensive weapons crimes directly on a school premises recorded by Essex Police from April 2017 to April 2020
The one possession of firearm weapons offence recorded at a school location by Essex Police.
|
Possession of firearms - Total Crimes by District |
|
|
Location District (Sector) |
Crimes by District |
|
Chelmsford |
1 |
|
Total |
1 |
Table 13: Location for the single possession of firearms offence recorded by Essex Police from April 2017 to April 2020
GBH Wounding offences were recorded by Essex Police at 57 schools between April 2017 and April 2020. This is shown below in Table 14:
|
GBH Wounding offences - Total Crimes by District |
|
|
Location District (Sector) |
Crimes by District |
|
Basildon |
5 |
|
Braintree |
4 |
|
Castle Point |
5 |
|
Chelmsford |
5 |
|
Colchester |
7 |
|
Epping Forest |
5 |
|
Harlow |
4 |
|
Maldon |
3 |
|
Rochford |
3 |
|
Southend-on-Sea |
4 |
|
Tendring |
7 |
|
Thurrock |
4 |
|
Uttlesford |
1 |
|
Total |
57 |
Table 14: Locations for GBH Wounding offences at a school recorded by Essex Police from April 2017 to April 2020
No reports of Murder crimes and therefore, any schools where murder crimes were committed, were recorded by Essex Police between April 2017 and April 2020.
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.
You may wish to review our publication scheme for articles related to Weapons:
In particular, Knife Crime Data:
Knife/Weapon Arrest Statistics Including Under 18s 2018 to 2021
Outside of the Act and in a further effort to assist, you may wish to review this previous FOI disclosure on Weapons seized at a specific type of premises (School) and which provides the data on type of Weapon and by Local Policing District across the county of Essex which may be of particular interest:
foi-weapons-seized-in-schools-2014-2018-2.pdf (essex.police.uk)
FOI Reference Number
12480
Request Title
Weapons in Schools
Date Range
01 September to 31 August in 2013/14, 2014/15, 2015/16, 2016/17, 2017/18
Information Requested
Under the FOI act, could I please request the following information for the past five academic years (Sep 1 – August 31 in 2013/14, 2014/15, 2015/16, 2016/17, 2017/18)
- The number of times your police force was called to a school or other educational institution because of a report relating to a knife, blade or other weapon
- The name of the educational institution and the date you were called
- Details of the incident that prompted the call (including the weapon type) and the police action required
- The result of the visit (i.e. no further action, criminal charge)
- The number of knives picked up/confiscated from schools in each year
Disclosure with Exemptions
Full Refusal with Section 12 Exemption
Information Correct as at
08 January 2019
Date of Disclosure
08 January 2019
Related Documents/Links
N/A
FOI 12480 Response
Having completed enquiries within Essex Police and in respect of Sec 1(1)(a), Essex Police does hold information relating to your request.
Under Section 1(1)(b) the attached data has been provided in relation to your FOI submission.
The attached document does provide more clarification which we hope you will find of assistance. Please note that some of the other details requested such as the name of the Institution and exact date cannot be released in this instance as to locate and retrieve that information would require the manual examination of individual records and this process will exceed the time and cost limits under the act and would qualify as the creation of data as details would not be able to extracted via means of sorting or filtering data sources or running a database query tool. There is no requirement under the act for creation of data to be carried out to answer questions within a FOI request.
Consequently, and to this extent, Essex Police are exempt from the duty to provide this part of the information you have requested under the provisions of section 12(1) of the FOI Act. Therefore, and in accordance with section 17(1) of the Act, this communication must act as a refusal notice to provide all of the information that could be interpreted as being captured by this part of your request.
Every effort is made to ensure that figures provided are accurate and complete, however Essex Police systems are designed primarily for the management of individual cases and not primarily for the production of statistical information. Please note although data can be extracted from a number of sources via database queries the results are subject to inaccuracies inherent in any large scale recording system and could also be inaccurate as a result of free text entry fields. Care should be taken to ensure data collection processes and their inevitable limitations are taken into account when interpreting data.