Livestock Theft 2019-24

Request

i) I would like to know about the total number of cases of livestock theft reported in the calendar years 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024 (the latest available). Please could these cases be provided with a yearly breakdown in spreadsheet format.

ii) Of the above cases, please could you tell me how many involved the theft of sheep. If this is not possible, alternatively could you provide the number of these theft cases where a keyword search of 'sheep' is conducted. Could these results also be provided with a yearly breakdown in a separate column.

iii) Please could you tell me how many cases of livestock theft (of any kind) resulted in a criminal conviction, also with a yearly breakdown. PLEASE DISREGARD (iii) if this would exceed the cost/time threshold of the FOI Act.

Response

We approached our Performance and Governance Department with your request. An analyst has provided the following data and explanation for their search criteria:

Please note:
• There is not a specific 'livestock theft' category of incident, so these are filtered to 'Theft' in the Disposal Code field and relevant keywords for each question in the Comment field.
• 'Theft' Disposal Code also includes attempted theft.
• Any ‘sheep’ word related to something other than the animal ‘sheep’ has been removed in the filter, including street names.
• One of the results had both a ‘livestock’ and ‘sheep’ keyword, and so is included in both counts.

i) Agency is equal to / is in SYP
and Disposal Code 1 Level 2 is equal to / is in THEFT
and Disposal Code 1 Description is not equal to / is not in THEFT FROM MOTOR VEHICLE, THEFT OF MOTOR VEHICLE, THEFT OF MOTOR VEHICLE (TWOC), THEFT SHOPLIFTING (CCTV), THEFT SHOPLIFTING (DETAINED), THEFT SHOPLIFTING (LEFT PREM)
and Comment contains any livestock

ii) Agency is equal to / is in SYP
and Disposal Code 1 Level 2 is equal to / is in THEFT
and Disposal Code 1 Description is not equal to / is not in THEFT FROM MOTOR VEHICLE, THEFT OF MOTOR VEHICLE, THEFT OF MOTOR VEHICLE (TWOC), THEFT SHOPLIFTING (CCTV), THEFT SHOPLIFTING (DETAINED), THEFT SHOPLIFTING (LEFT PREM)
and Comment contains any sheep
and Comment does not contain sheep dip, sheepskin, sheep bridge, sheepish, sheepdip, sheep dog
and Full Address does not contain SHEEP

iii) None if the above incidents resulted in Outcome 1 Charged or 1A Charged Alternative offence. No Information Held.

South Yorkshire Police does not hold conviction data - ie outcomes at court. We suggested you direct your request to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) here:

https://www.cps.gov.uk/publication/freedom-information

Please note, every effort is made to ensure that the figures presented are accurate and complete. However, it is important to note that data has been extracted from data sources used by this force for police purposes. The detail collected to respond specifically to your request is subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large scale recording systems and information assets.

The figures provided therefore are our best interpretation of relevance of data to your request, but you should be aware that the collation of figures/data for any requests may have limitations, and this should be taken into account when those data are used. 

Police forces do not use generic systems or identical procedures for capturing the data. For these reasons this response to your questions should not be used for comparison purposes with responses you may receive from other police forces.