FOI 97977

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST REFERENCE NO: 97977

I write in connection with your request for information which was received on 13^th July 2021. Please find below the response to your request:

 

I'm requesting information under the Freedom of Information Act (2000) regarding the following:

 

1. How many missing persons cases have been filed (from Jan 2016-June 2021) in your police department?

1i. Within this, could you split it up by ethnicity (specifically how many are Caucasian, Asian and Black)?

1ii. Could you also split the data up by gender (but I would like to know how many are Black males, white females, etc)?

 

2. Could you tell me of the number of missing Black people filed in your police department from 2016-2021, how many were under the age of 18?

 

 

Reply:-

Please note caveat below:

 

Please be advised that the below data has been researched from the West Mercia Police system and NOT all missing person reports are recorded onto this system. This is particularly the case for short lived reports where the missing person returns very quickly. The true figures are therefore likely to be significantly higher that the data provided below ( estimated between 10-15 percent more)

This situation is not unusual with many other UK Police Forces and West Mercia are taking steps to address this.

To totally satisfy the request would require a manual trawl of each call to the Police (recorded on our Command and Control system) where a person was reported missing and then the examination of each report to recover the data.

This is not possible within the time limits of the FOI request and this response is therefore the most accurate that can currently be provided.

 

 

1. How many missing persons cases have been filed (from Jan 2016-June 2021) in your police department?

 

There were 23,774 missing person reports recorded during this period

 

 

1i. Within this, could you split it up by ethnicity (specifically how many are Caucasian, Asian and Black)?

 

Any other Asian Group – 135: 68 Males, 64 Females

 

Any other Black background – 111: 70 Males, 41 Females

 

Any other Ethnic Group – 61: 40 Males, 21 Females

 

Any other Mixed background – 270: 147 Males, 123 Females

 

Any other White background – 546: 361 Males, 185 Females

 

Bangladeshi – 10: 6 Males, 4 Females

 

Black African – 119: 81 Males, 36 Females, 2 Unknown

 

Black Caribbean – 181: 77 Males, 34 Females

Chinese – 20: 6 Males, 14 Females

 

Indian – 127: 100 Males, 27 Females

 

Unknown – 296: 162 Males, 133 Females, 1 Transgender

 

Pakistani – 144: 102 Males, 42 Females

 

White and Asian – 189: 62 Males, 125 Females, 2 Transgender

 

White and Black African – 155: 111 Males, 44 Females

 

White and Black Caribbean – 470: 291 Males, 179 Females

 

White British - 20,923: 12,007 Males, 8874 Females, 39 Transgender, 3 Unknown

 

White Irish – 82: 41 Males, 41 Females

 

 

1ii. Could you also split the data up by gender (but I would like to know how many are Black males, white females, etc)?

 

Please see above.

 

 

2. Could you tell me of the number of missing Black people filed in your police department from 2016-2021, how many were under the age of 18?

 

593