EVIDENCE FROM SOCIAL NETWORK SITES | South Yorkshire Police

Reference number:

20110066

Request date:

02/2011

Response date:

16/02/2011 (All day)

Request details:

How many times in the last three full years (2008, 2009, 2010) has evidence found by your force on either Twitter or Facebook or both led to an arrest or charge?
For each individual time this has occurred, I would like to know the following information, broken down in the following way:
1)      Details of the alleged crime(s)
2)      Date of the alleged crime(s)
3)      Whether it was Facebook, Twitter or both where the evidence was found.
3)      How did the force become aware of the evidence on Facebook, Twitter or both.
4)      What was the evidence? Please be specific – ie. Was it a confession? A tip from a third party?
5)      Was there a conviction? If so, what was the sentence?

Exemptions Applied:

S.12: Exemption Where Cost of Compliance Exceed Appropriate Limit

SYP response:

Your request for information has now been considered and I am not obliged to supply the information you have requested. Section 17 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 requires South Yorkshire Police, when refusing to provide such information (because the information is exempt) to provide you the applicant with a notice which:
(a) states that fact;
(b) specifies the exemption in question and;
(c) states (if that would not otherwise be apparent) why the exemption applies.

The following exemption applies to the disclosure of the information:

Section 12 – Exemption where cost of compliance exceeds appropriate limit

The Crime Recording System utilised by South Yorkshire Police does not specifically record in a searchable field whether evidence from social networking websites has been a contributory factor in an investigation. During the time scale mentioned in your request (2008, 2009 & 2010) a total of 409,259 crimes were recorded by this Force. Of these 99,989 are 'detected'. In order to determine if the information is held and locate, retrieve and extract such held information it would be necessary to physically review each of the 99,989 detected crimes to establish whether evidence gained from 'Facebook' or 'Twitter' was contributory to an arrest or charge. The Computerised Crime Recording System is precisely that. It is used for the recording of allegations of crime and the progress of investigation together with the recording of certain administrative functions. It is NOT utilised to record the evidence gathered during an investigation. Such a review would therefore not only require the searching of computerised records but also the location, retrieval and detailed examination of paper files from several locations throughout the Force.

The Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004 provide that the cost limit for non central government public authorities is £450. This must be calculated at the rate of £25 per hour, providing an effective time limit of 18 hours.

If you feel your endeavours can be achieved within the appropriate limit by refining your request South Yorkshire Police would be more than happy to consider any further request.