North Wales Police

Examples of useful requests

Ideas of requests people commonly send to North Wales Police. Success is not guaranteed — exemptions and cost limits may apply.

• Number of stop-and-searches by outcome last year
• Spending on Taser equipment in the last financial year
• Policy on body-worn video retention
• Number of complaints upheld in the last 12 months

What you may be able to request

Some information categories are based on the authority's published responsibilities and may not yet have been confirmed through an FOI response.

What the Police Information Map is establishing

The map is built in stages. Before a statistical request can be written properly, we need to know what exists and what a force's systems can actually do.

1. 1What police systems exist
2. 2What information they record
3. 3What fields and categories can be searched
4. 4What fields and categories can be statistically reported
5. 5Whether reporting requires manual review
6. 6Whether fields are mandatory, conditional or optional
7. 7What statistical FOI requests can then be constructed

This North Wales Police response matters because it gives unusually clear information about which fields are searchable and which can be used in statistical reporting.

What systems are being used?

Searchable crime information

Unresolved — clarification needed

• Crime status?NEXT QUESTION

  North Wales Police responded: “Same field as outcome?”

  Recorded as asked. This is not treated as a confirmed searchable field.

• Investigation status?NEXT QUESTION

  North Wales Police responded: “Same field as outcome?”

  Recorded as asked. This is not treated as a confirmed searchable field.

What can potentially be filtered for suspects?

Green means North Wales Police confirmed the capability. Amber means it confirmed the capability but placed a limitation on the answer.

• Age⚠QUALIFIED

  Calculated from date of birth; filterable in reporting software

  ⚠ Derived from date of birth rather than stored as an age field.

• Age band⚠QUALIFIED

  Calculated from date of birth; filterable in reporting software

  ⚠ Derived from date of birth rather than stored as a band.

• Sex✓CONFIRMED

  Yes

• Nationality✓CONFIRMED

  Yes

• Ethnicity✓CONFIRMED

  Yes

• Country of birth✓CONFIRMED

  Yes

• Immigration status✓CONFIRMED

  Yes

• Occupation✓CONFIRMED

  Yes

• Vulnerability markers⚠QUALIFIED

  Yes, depending on marker

  ⚠ Capability depends on the particular marker.

• Repeat offender⚠QUALIFIED

  Calculated rather than a marker; can be filtered depending on definition

  ⚠ Depends on the definition of a repeat offender used in the request.

What can potentially be filtered for victims?

• Age⚠QUALIFIED

  Calculated from date of birth; filterable in reporting software

  ⚠ Derived from date of birth rather than stored as an age field.

• Age band⚠QUALIFIED

  Calculated from date of birth; filterable in reporting software

  ⚠ Derived from date of birth rather than stored as a band.

• Sex✓CONFIRMED

  Yes

• Nationality✓CONFIRMED

  Yes

• Ethnicity✓CONFIRMED

  Yes

• Vulnerability markers⚠QUALIFIED

  Yes, depending on marker

  ⚠ Capability depends on the particular marker.

• Repeat victim⚠QUALIFIED

  Calculated rather than a marker; can be filtered depending on definition

  ⚠ Depends on the definition of a repeat victim used in the request.

Nationality

Reporting capability

Why this matters

The foundation model

1. 🧱 System

   What software holds the information?

   ↓
2. 🧱 Field

   What information is actually recorded?

   ↓
3. 🧱 Population

   How consistently is the field completed?

   ↓
4. 🧱 Search

   Can authorised users search it?

   ↓
5. 🧱 Report

   Can statistical reporting use it?

   ↓
6. 🧱 Combination

   Can multiple categories be queried together?

   ↓
7. 🧱 Data

   Now construct a properly targeted statistical FOI.

Brick by brick, the foundations are being laid.

Where the investigation goes next

These questions were not answered by FOI 2026/767. They are recorded as open questions, not assumptions.

• ❓What is the separate reporting / business intelligence system?
• ❓What selectable values exist for Immigration Status?
• ❓Is Asylum Seeker Status a dedicated field, a marker, or a value within another field?
• ❓What values exist for Refugee Status?
• ❓What values exist for Visa Status?
• ❓What exactly is meant by “British/EU citizenship”?
• ❓Are Nationality and Country of Birth separate structured fields?
• ❓Which fields are mandatory?
• ❓Which fields are conditionally mandatory?
• ❓Which fields are optional?
• ❓How completely are these fields populated?

Next step: targeted follow-up FOI

Future statistical potential

Once the structure and limitations of the data are properly established, future FOI requests may be able to test whether statistics can be produced across combinations of categories.

These are labelled possible future queries. North Wales Police has not confirmed that every combination of fields can be produced.

Force comparison record

These are the comparison fields recorded for North Wales Police in the Police Information Map, so forces can be compared on the same basis as more responses arrive.

The PublicAudit evidence standard

Confirmed

Explicitly stated by the authority.

Qualified

Confirmed with an important limitation.

Not recorded

The authority explicitly states it is not recorded.

Unknown

The response does not establish the answer.

Withheld

The authority says the information falls within the request but has applied an exemption.

• Searchable is never converted into routinely recorded.
• Searchable is never converted into reportable unless the response supports it.
• Forces using the same software are never assumed to configure their systems identically.
• Immigration status is never inferred from nationality or country of birth.

Mapping progress

1. 10 August 2026
   Response received

   FOI 2026/767 (response 10 August 2026, information correct as at 7 August 2026). North Wales Police confirmed it uses Niche for crime, custody, intelligence and case management records, and ICAD for incident logs. Crime type, Home Office offence code, outcome/disposal, date reported, date occurred (as a range), date closed and location/postcode were confirmed as searchable and reportable. Suspect and victim characteristics including sex, nationality, ethnicity, country of birth, immigration status and occupation can be filtered, with age and repeat offender/victim being calculated rather than stored. Immigration status, asylum seeker status, refugee status, visa status, country of birth and citizenship were described as searchable and reportable subject to how the field has been populated. The force confirmed systems capable of generating statistical reports from one or more searchable categories without manual review, using a separate reporting system that was not named. Field mandatory status and field population remain unknown and are the subject of a targeted follow-up request.