Just received a reply to the FOI request I sent to West Midlands Police earlier this week, asking how many individuals had been visited by officers over their online speech activity...
Cutting the story short:
They stonewalled—just as many suspected.
But their swift response was telling.
After they rejected a wider request, I set very clear parameters of incident reports in a new request including visits not involving citizens suspected of committing speech-related offences but from concerns that those citizens might commit an offence in the future (or warned that their speech was close to committing an offence).
It followed the story of Helen Jones, a grandmother who was visited by two Greater Manchester police officers over a harassment complaint after she criticised local Labour councillors on Facebook.
Police knew no crime was committed but knocked on Jones' door anyway.
(Yep, that really happened. And no, it’s not isolated—dozens of similar incidents have emerged across the UK in recent years.)
West Midlands Police replied first by claiming the request would take too much time to process. Then, when the request was narrowed, they said they don’t store the relevant data in a way that’s easily accessible.
Two points:
1. If they're not archiving the reason or
motive for actions such as visits in an accessible way, how they can identify, track, and investigate cases appropriately themselves. Or, indeed, justify the visits.
2. If this is taken to the Information Commissioner’s Office—and they also stonewall, as they’ve done repeatedly for police and government departments before—it effectively gives law enforcement free pass to reject any FOI request they decide is too “time-consuming."
Certainly makes life easier for West Midlands Police Chief Craig Guildford (pictured).
For context: in January, The Telegraph revealed that police forces across the UK are collecting less data on key crimes than at any time in the past 15 years.
One striking example:
Between 2010 and 2024, the percentage of convicted child sex offenders whose ethnicity went unrecorded more than doubled—from 11.6% to 28.7%.
Question is... when does this stop being incompetence and start becoming criminal negligence?
Will keep trying and refining and altering requests to get the data. Still waiting on 5 other police forces to respond to same request.
@TheStarkNakedBrief
Cutting the story short:
They stonewalled—just as many suspected.
But their swift response was telling.
After they rejected a wider request, I set very clear parameters of incident reports in a new request including visits not involving citizens suspected of committing speech-related offences but from concerns that those citizens might commit an offence in the future (or warned that their speech was close to committing an offence).
It followed the story of Helen Jones, a grandmother who was visited by two Greater Manchester police officers over a harassment complaint after she criticised local Labour councillors on Facebook.
Police knew no crime was committed but knocked on Jones' door anyway.
(Yep, that really happened. And no, it’s not isolated—dozens of similar incidents have emerged across the UK in recent years.)
West Midlands Police replied first by claiming the request would take too much time to process. Then, when the request was narrowed, they said they don’t store the relevant data in a way that’s easily accessible.
Two points:
1. If they're not archiving the reason or
motive for actions such as visits in an accessible way, how they can identify, track, and investigate cases appropriately themselves. Or, indeed, justify the visits.
2. If this is taken to the Information Commissioner’s Office—and they also stonewall, as they’ve done repeatedly for police and government departments before—it effectively gives law enforcement free pass to reject any FOI request they decide is too “time-consuming."
Certainly makes life easier for West Midlands Police Chief Craig Guildford (pictured).
For context: in January, The Telegraph revealed that police forces across the UK are collecting less data on key crimes than at any time in the past 15 years.
One striking example:
Between 2010 and 2024, the percentage of convicted child sex offenders whose ethnicity went unrecorded more than doubled—from 11.6% to 28.7%.
Question is... when does this stop being incompetence and start becoming criminal negligence?
Will keep trying and refining and altering requests to get the data. Still waiting on 5 other police forces to respond to same request.
@TheStarkNakedBrief
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