Screened Out Crimes 2019-2022
Keywords
Screened, Out, Crimes, Further, Investigation, Filed, Reported, Cases, Qualify, Investigation, Initial, Screening, Process, Closed, Assigned, Offence, Classification, Index, Filing, Triaged, Detect, Viability, Proportional, THRIVE, CARA, Determined, Allocated, Desk, Bureau, Threat, Harm, Risk, Investigative, Vulnerability, Engagement, Opportunities, Available, Priority, Athena, Victim, Updated, Types.
Publication Number
PUB 1383
FOI Reference Number
16766
Request Title
Screened Out Crimes 2019-2022
Date Range
2019 to 2022
Information Requested
I am writing to request information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 on the amount of “screened out” crimes within 24 hours of being reported for the following calendar years: 2019, 2020, 2021 and to date (1st February 2022)
Please can you provide me for each calendar year:
1. The total number of crimes that have been “screened out” for further investigation or ‘filed’ shortly after it was reported to the police. These are cases which do not qualify for investigation after an initial screening process. This also includes reported crimes closed within 24 hours, without a police officer being assigned to it. Please break this information down into individual offence as per the Count Offence Classification Index.
2. Please can you provide me with the total number of crimes reported to your force for the calendar years 2019, 2020, 2021 and to date (1st February 2022). Please break this information down into individual offence as per the Count Offence Classification Index.
Disclosure with Exemptions
Full Disclosure
Information Correct as at
09 March 2022
Date of Disclosure
16 March 2022
Related Documents/Links
B0600 Policy - Investigation of Crime
D0503 Procedure - Responding to Incidents
D0508 Procedure - Resolution Centre Allocation
PUB 1376 Burglary Offences 2019 to 2021
FOI 16766 Response
Having completed enquiries within Essex Police in respect of Section 1(1)(a), Essex Police does hold information relating to your request, and can confirm the following and attached:
Caveat: The data is correct as at 09/03/2022.
Essex Police does not ‘screen out’ crimes or investigations or any other target around the filing down of investigations. Essex Police adopt a process whereby investigations are triaged to detect viability to ensure that there is a proportional investigation utilising THRIVE* criteria and CARA**. It is then determined if a report should be allocated on for further investigation.
These figures have been produced using the records where there is no Officer allocated to the case, therefore a desk based investigation has taken place.
Statistical information on this subject, without an accompanying context, can be misleading in this regard, however, the THRIVE and/or CARA processes mentioned below will provide further explanation:
All reports of crime and non-crime matters reported via the Crime Bureau are subject to THRIVE to assess them for Threat, Harm, Risk posed, Investigative, Vulnerability and Engagement and the investigative opportunities available to us. This process informs the priority in which we deal with the incoming report. Once an investigation is recorded on Athena the Crime Bureau Investigator completes a desk based investigation to determine (using the Crime Allocation Assessment process (CARA)) the outcome of this assessment and if the crime is to be allocated to an officer for further investigation or whether the victim is updated at this stage that the investigation is going to be filed. It should be noted that not all offence types reported direct to the Crime Bureau are subject to the Crime Allocation Assessment process (e.g. Dwelling Burglary, Rapes and Serious Sexual offences, Frauds, Child & Adult Protection investigations, Other force transfers of crime, Section 136 Mental Health reports, Non-crime investigations – These investigations will always be allocated out to an officer/specialist team). Any report that is created direct by an officer onto Athena or submitted via their mobile device are also excluded from CARA.
Essex Police publishes details of Policies and Procedures, including recording and investigation of crimes, which can be found using the below link:
Please see results attached, which responds to both Questions 1 and 2.
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.