FOI 631/25
REQUEST
- From 2019 to the most recent data available, how many crimes were logged by your police force where a slingshot was recorded as being an element in the offence? Please provide a yearly breakdown in a table (Note: I would hope that this could be achieved by a computer search on the MO of crimes for the word “slingshot” or synonyms like “catapult”)
- Please provide me with a table showing a breakdown of the crimes from Question 1 that are 'linked' to slingshot/s by its mention in the MO for 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025 by offence subgroup as per the Home Office counting rules.
CLARIFICATION
Only include the words ‘slingshot’ and ‘catapult’ in the keyword search.
RESPONSE
We conducted a keyword search on our Crime and Incident recording system (NICHE RMS) for all crimes where the words ‘slingshot’ and ‘catapult’ were mentioned within the summary and/or MO within the requested time frame.
Please see the below results.
Question 1
|
Year |
Total |
|
2019 |
9 |
|
2020 |
8 |
|
2021 |
8 |
|
2022 |
16 |
|
2023 |
17 |
|
2024 |
13 |
|
Grand Total |
71 |
Question 2
| Year | |||||||
| HO CODE | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | |
| (S.47) Assault with Injury | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | |||
| Affray | 3 | ||||||
| Burglary - Residential | 1 | ||||||
| Common assault and battery (Criminal Justice Act 1988 Sec 39.) | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||||
| Criminal Damage - Residential | 1 | 3 | 1 | ||||
| Grievous Bodily Harm WITH INTENT | 1 | ||||||
| Having an article with a blade or point in a public place. (Offensive Weapons Act 1996 Sec 3.(amended by Violent Crime Reduction Act 2006 S.42)) | 1 | ||||||
| Other criminal damage (other) | 2 | ||||||
| Other criminal damage (other) under £5000 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |||
| Other criminal damage building (not dwelling) under £5000 | 1 | ||||||
| Other criminal damage to a (vehicle) | 1 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 2 | ||
| Other criminal damage to a dwelling | 1 | 2 | |||||
| Other criminal damage to a dwelling under £5000 | 1 | 1 | |||||
| Other criminal damage to a vehicle under £5000 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||||
| Other criminal damage to building (not dwelling) | 1 | ||||||
| Other Criminal Damage Under £5000 - Business & Community | 1 | 3 | 1 | ||||
| Other Criminal Damage Under £5000 - Residential | 2 | 3 | 2 | 3 | |||
| Protection from Harassment Act Sec 2. (S.2 Protection from Harassment Act 1997) | 1 | ||||||
| Racially or Religiously aggravated Common Assault or Beating S29(1)(c) and (3) Crime & Disorder Act 1998 | 1 | ||||||
| Racially or Religiously aggravated fear or provocation of violence S31(1)(a) & (4) Crime & Disorder Act 1998 | 1 | ||||||
| Racially or Religiously aggravated harassment, alarm or distress | 1 | ||||||
| Sec 4 POA Fear or provocation of violence. | 1 | ||||||
| Sec 4A POA Causing intentional harassment, alarm or distress. | 1 | 1 | |||||
| Stalking involving serious alarm / distress. Protection from Harassment Act 1997 (Protection of Freedom Act 2012) | 1 | ||||||
| Theft if not classified elsewhere (Theft non specific) | 1 | 1 | |||||
| Threats to kill | 1 | ||||||
| Grand Total | 9 | 8 | 8 | 16 | 17 | 13 | |
Please note that this data has been gathered by searching our records management system for offences containing the keywords slingshot and catapult in the relevant time period. The results retrieved are dependent on how the information has been entered onto the system. As such, the information provided should not be considered statistically accurate and/or definitive and therefore, care should be taken when using this data for any further statistical, analytical or evaluative purposes.