FOI 21994-25 Northampton Car Thefts

Request to Northamptonshire Police

Please provide the following information regarding vehicle thefts in Northampton for 2024 and 2025 to date (please state the cut-off date used):

1. The number of vehicle thefts recorded each month during this period.

2. The top 10 vehicle makes and models most frequently stolen (annual totals are fine if monthly data is not available).

3. Where recorded, the main methods used to steal vehicles — e.g. keyless/relay thefts, key burglaries, forced entry, or other methods.

4. Any indication of links to organised crime or “chop-shop” activity.

5. The number of arrests or charges related to these offences.

6. A breakdown by area or postcode sector (e.g. NN1, NN2, NN3, etc.) showing where thefts occurred.

Response

After conducting reasonable searches, I can confirm that Northamptonshire Police holds some of the information requested.

However, we are unable to provide you with all data requested as it is not held in a readily accessible format.

Furthermore, due to data quality issues in terms of the recording of make / model of vehicles, some of the data retrieved cannot be relied upon as correct. By way of explanation, the system used to record these crimes does not contain ‘vehicle entry method’ as a mandatory field to be completed.

To establish this information would require a free text search of terms ‘Keyless’, ‘Does not have key’, ‘Vehicle left Unlocked’, ‘Stolen without Key’, and ‘Hotwired’.

I can confirm that Northamptonshire Police recorded a total of 831 vehicle thefts across the specified time period. However, even at a conservative estimate of 2 minutes per record to manually review how vehicle access was gained, this would exceed the appropriate cost limit of £450. This engages an exemption under s12(1) Freedom of Information Act 2000 (the Act).

Accordingly, please accept this as a Refusal Notice under s17(1) of the Act.

Per s16 of the Act, we are required to offer advice and assistance as to how you can refine your request. Therefore, I advise that we may be able to answer Question 6 of your enquiry (subject to further exemptions).

If you feel this would be beneficial, please submit a new request.

If you decide to write an article or use the enclosed data, we would ask you to take into consideration the factors highlighted in this document so as to not mislead members of the public or official bodies or misrepresent the relevance of the whole or any part of this disclosed material.