Hackney Council only breaks the law 15% of the time?

Judging by the number of Freedom of Information (FOI) requests being dealt with by Hackney Council it's not surprising there's a bit of a backlog. There have been 237 requests via Whatdotheyknow.com alone.

According to Hackney Council there were 883 requests over the 12 months up to September 2010 (assuming it relates to the date the request was made: September 2010.)

By it's own admission Hackney Council says people are interested in using the service. (The council said: "An increase (in FOI requests) in the lead up to national and local elections was expected, but has continued as a result of interest in the Council’s reaction to cuts in spending and as a result of increased awareness of the legislation. The number of complex requests also appears to be increasing.")

But is the council setting its targets illegally low when it comes to how long it takes to answer these FOI questions?

The council's performance has been improving but it has set itself a threshold allowing it fail to respond within the legal time limit in 15% of cases.

In an FOI request on Whatdotheyknow.com Jed Keenan asked: "I notice that the target for requests being replied to within the statutory standard of 20 working days is set at only 85% rather than the statutory standard of 100%. Is this because this is considered the minimum that this local authority is capable of achieving?"

The Council replied: "The council's target is to provide information requested under the Freedom of Information Act within 20 working days. 85% is the Council's minimum."

Keenan (who has been criticised for bombarding Hackney with FOI requests - currently 59) said that this response "seems to imply that the Council’s minimum target is to break the law only 15% of the time" as the FOI Act is legally binding.

Ultimate responsibility for FOI in Hackney lies with the borough's head of legal services, Gifty Edila. Hopefully she's got enough staff to check whether or not the council is acting within the law - unless of course they're busy doing other bits and pieces.

Hackney is second biggest customer of Operation Trident

Below is a list of London Boroughs and a breakdown of the number of crimes committed that are being dealt with by Trident. The figures were provided following a Freedom of Information Act request by Blood and Property.

Hackney has had 110 cases investigated by Trident over the last four years. This is far from all the gun crime committed in Hackney over this period.

Gun crime stats for Hackney from Met Police show that, in 2009 there were 160 "gun enabled" crimes of which 32 were investigated by Trident. In 2008 there were 123 gun enabled crimes reported in Hackney, 20 of them were investigated by Trident.

The Metropolitan Police response to the FOI request said: "Trident investigates all non-fatal shootings within London irrespective of the ethnicity of the victim or suspect.

"Trident also investigates fatal shootings occurring solely within the black community.

Waltham Forest and Croydon have both launched campaigns to increase their police forces and both mention Hackney as a borough with more than its fair share police officers. In 2008-9 Trident had a £28m budget and it now employs 359 police officers. Over the last four years Hackney has seen 110 cases, 10% of Trident's case load, being investigated.

Also, last month (Feb) Diane Abbott answered Blood and Property questions including: "5. Although crime in Hackney has fallen, other boroughs complain that Hackney has more policemen. On top of that, Hackney seems to be able to rely on outside agencies like Operation Trident. Do you know how much support Hackney's police get in fighting crime and whether this might no longer be available either if the Conservatives win or if the government has to cut police budgets?"

She said: "Crime has fallen in Hackney and I am pleased to say it is at the lowest level for 10 years. This is down to the hard work of our police force and agencies like Operation Trident and if Hackney has needed more police or funding to do this, I can only say that it has truly been worth it and the results speak for themselves. However, we musn't forget that gun crime has increased in the borough. A spate of killings in the Turkish/Kurdish community has gone someway to pushing these figures up and this is something I will be tackling alongside the police and the council. We can already see that a Conservative government would cut expenditure on fighting crime and the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson is already proposing to cut 450 police officers by the end of his term."

(Apologies for the lack of a chart - if anyone has an easy way to put charts in blogger please let me know - even spaces were removed on publication! Very annoying.)

Borough 2006 2007 2008 2009 Total
Lambeth 32 39 31 49 151
Hackney 37 27 20 32 116
Southwark 37 22 24 27 110

Borough 2006 2007 2008 2009 Total
Brent 18 26 12 15 71
Waltham Forest 21 34 13 24 92
Haringey 15 13 10 18 56
Lewisham 10 14 8 29 61

Borough 2006 2007 2008 2009 Total
Newham 7 16 20 11 54
Wandsworth 13 6 8 23 50
Croydon 5 4 12 19 40
Ealing 5 13 13 16 47
Islington 11 9 6 15 41

Borough 2006 2007 2008 2009 Total
Enfield 6 13 7 11 37
Westminster 4 6 5 5 20
Hammersmith & Fulham 5 5 5 5 20
Greenwich 5 7 3 11 26
Tower Hamlets 4 3 3 1 11

Borough 2006 2007 2008 2009 Total
Camden 4 2 4 8 18
Kensington & Chelsea 6 2 2 3 13
Merton 1 4 4 6 15
Redbridge 0 3 3 6 12

Borough 2006 2007 2008 2009 Total
Barking & Dagenham 2 4 5 7 18
Barnet 5 2 3 5 15
Hillingdon 2 1 2 1 6
Bexley 3 4 3 1 11
Bromley 2 2 1 4 9
Harrow 2 1 1 3 7
Hounslow 1 0 0 0 1
Havering 2 4 2 0 8
Sutton 2 2 2 1 7
Kingston 1 0 1 0 2
Richmond 0 0 0 0 0

Hackney has too many cops say Croydon and Waltham Forest

Some boroughs are citing Hackney as the most generously policed borough as they lobby Boris Johnson for more officers. A campaign is underway in Waltham Forest (this link is a bit odd), this piece from Yellow Advertiser ends: "For example Hackney has virtually the same amount of serious crime, but 195 police officers more than Waltham Forest."

A similar campaign has been running for longer in Croydon: "The Cops for Croydon campaign has cross party support from Croydon’s councillors and now residents, local businesses and commuters are being urged to add their weight to the scheme.

The piece in the Croydon Guardian specifically mentions Hackney as a place that has more than its fair share of police officers: "Councillor Gavin Barwell, cabinet member for safety and cohesion, said: “There is clear evidence that, relative to other boroughs, the number of full-time police officers in Croydon does not adequately reflect the number of offences. Newham, Hackney and Tower Hamlets have all been allocated more full-time police officers than Croydon, yet because they are much smaller than Croydon, they have to deal with fewer offences.”

Trident figures - insult to injury?

In January Blood and Property made a request under the freedom of information act to find out how much Hackney relies on Operation Trident to fight its crime. Answers to those questions arrived last week and will post them in full on Monday.

The met police provided borough by borough figures for 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009. Over this period Hackney was the London borough with the second highest number of cases being investigated by Operation Trident officers - 110 over the four year period.

This compared to 92 in Waltham Forest (the fifth most prolific area for Trident investigations) and 40 in Croydon (12th highest number of Trident investigations).

In 2008 alone Operation Trident had a £28m budget. It currently employs 359 police officers. As Hackney's 110 cases made up nearly 10% of all the Trident investigations over four years, it seems safe to assume that the borough has had access to a significant chunk of Trident 's resources.

What happens to Hackney if Trident funding is cut and should Hackney politicians and residents be preparing a campaign to maintain the current level of policing?

The met response to the FOI request (excluding 2006-9 figures) said: "Trident investigates all non-fatal shootings within London irrespective of the ethnicity of the victim or suspect.

"Trident also investigates fatal shootings occurring solely within the black community.

"Trident's Community Engagement Team works closely with communities within the Trident hotspot boroughs to tackle gun-enabled crime. The unit provides an opportunity for the police and the community to work together in preventing, detecting and combating gun related criminality."