Out of control dog causing injury' (008/21), how many times was a suspect identified for this offence more than once, for each year from 2018 -23

Request

Under the Freedom of Information Act, for the offence 'out of control dog causing injury' (008/21), how many times was a suspect identified for this offence more than once, for each year from 2018 – 2023?

If you do not have data for all of 2023, please provide it up until the most recent date available and specify that date.

Response

We approached our Crime Management Data Returns Administrator for assistance with your request. The Connect System is used to record complaints or allegations of those matters, which the Home Office specify should be recorded as ‘crime’.

They provided us with the following explanation of their search criteria and the enclosed spreadsheet:

Criteria Used - Incident Created Date is between 01/01/2018 and 31/12/2023, SYP & crime only filter, HO Classification is equal to / is in 008/21, Person Role is equal to SUSPECT, SUSPECT (ELIMINATED), SUSPECT (INSUFFICIENT TO PROCEED), SUSPECT (INTERVIEWED), SUSPECT (NO ACTION) EVIDENTIAL DIFF., SUSPECT (NO ACTION) TIME LIMIT EXPIRED, SUSPECT (NOT INTERVIEWED), SUSPECT (PROSECUTION PREVENTED), SUSPECT PRE ATHENA

Please see attached spreadsheet - 24.011401. 

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.