FOI 892/25

Request

1. Have you set up Operation Snap – or a similar scheme - in your constabulary, where people can send you video footage of drivers committing alleged misdemeanours?
2. How many items of footage have been submitted and received by your constabulary between January 2022 and May 2025? Please provide a monthly breakdown if available. If a monthly breakdown is not available, could you provide it by calendar or financial year? Please note my preference, if you cannot provide monthly figures, would be calendar years for 2022, 2023 and 2024.
3. In each of the last three calendar years how did these cases conclude? Please provide a breakdown of the outcomes, including (a) Fixed Penalty Notices (FPNs) issued, (b) court prosecutions, (c) warnings letters, (d) education/retraining courses, (e) no further action etc.
4. In each of the last three calendar years please provide a breakdown of the types of offences identified via these submissions, with total figures for each of the following categories (a) driving without due care and attention/driving without reasonable consideration, (b) contravening a red light, (c) using a mobile phone whilst driving, (d) stopping a vehicle on a pelican/pedestrian crossing (e) failing to wear a seatbelt.
5. If recorded, please specify the type of individuals or groups submitting footage (e.g. private motorists, cyclists, taxi drivers, bus drivers, fleet companies, etc.

Response

Your request for information has now been considered and I am not obliged to supply the information you have requested.       

In relation to your request, the following exemption applies:

Section 12 – Exemption where cost of compliance exceeds appropriate limit.

We consulted with our Operation SNAP team who have advised that to retrieve the data for question 3 would require manual interrogation of 16,650 records to establish how the case concluded. They estimate this would take around three to four minutes per record.

Therefore, they estimate it would take in excess of 971 hours to retrieve this information.

It is estimated that the cost of providing you with the information is above the amount to which we are legally required to respond i.e. the cost of locating and retrieving the information exceeds the "appropriate level" as stated in the Freedom of Information (Fees and Appropriate Limit) Regulations 2004.

In the case of the police service, the appropriate limit is £450 which has been calculated to equate to a total of 18 hours of work.

If any part of the request exceeds the fees limit then Section 12 applies to the whole request.

In accordance with the Freedom of Information Act 2000, this letter acts as a refusal notice.

Excess cost removes the forces obligation under the Freedom of Information Act, however under Section 16 – Duty to provide advice and assistance, an authority is required to offer an applicant the opportunity to redefine their request within the cost limit. If you were to remove question 3, we may be able to assist with the remainder of your request.