Issue of Personal Safety Warnings (FOI)

​Request

How many police warnings letting people know that their lives were under threat have been issued in Jersey over the past five years?

Could you break this down by how many Personal Safety warnings have been issued each year and what happened as a result?

(Personal Safety warnings - are issued by police if they become aware of a real and immediate threat to somebody's life.)

Response

The information requested is publicly available for the years 2011 to 2016 and is therefore absolutely exempt under Article 23 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011. This information was published following a Freedom of Information request issued in February 2017 and can be found at the following link:

Personal Safety Warnings (FOI)

In 2017, eight personal safety warnings were given by police. No further details will be given as this information is qualified exempt under article 38 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011.

Exemptions applied

Article 23 Information accessible by other means

(1) Information is absolutely exempt information if it is reasonably available to the applicant, otherwise than under this law, whether or not free of charge.

Article 38 Endangering the safety or health of individuals.

Information is qualified exempt information if its disclosure would, or would be likely to –

(a) Endanger the safety of an individual; or

(b) Endanger the physical or mental health of an individual.

Public interest test.

Article 38 is a qualified exemption and the public interest test has therefore been applied.

The harm that could be caused to individuals following the release of any detailed information is twofold. The individual could suffer from the mental anguish following the publication of any details, reopening the events that led to the disclosure. The release could also renew the original threat, putting the individual in further danger to harm. It is not in the public interest to release details of any Public Safety Warning issued by the police to satisfy the curiosity of any individual. The public interest test falls on the side of non-disclosure.