Investigation into police contact with a man following a report into his behaviour and welfare - Merseyside Police, February 2021

The IOPC recommends that Merseyside Police ensures that there is a robust agreement in place between the force and North West Ambulance Service NHS Trust in relation to people who come into contact with the police and require urgent medical attention’, including people showing signs of Acute Behavioural Disturbance (ABD). This agreement must ensure that the ambulance service appropriately categorise suspected ABD cases in line with national NHS categorisation guidance, that this categorisation should also take into consideration additional risk-increasing-factors (such as the use of drugs, alcohol and restraint), and that officers reporting suspected incidents of ABD are provided with timely medical support. Merseyside Police officers attended to reports of a man with a knife, possibly being chased. On arrival officers located the man who appeared to be suffering from Acute Behavioural Disorder and had a number of suspected drugs packages in his mouth.  Officers restrained the man while awaiting an ambulance to attend. On arrival of the ambulance, the officers assisted in placing the man onto a stretcher and into the ambulance. Once in the ambulance, the man stopped breathing and officers assisted with CPR. The man was taken to hospital where he remained in intensive care for some time but subsequently died on 21 April 2021. The evidence indicates that despite officers making the ambulance service aware that the man may have been suffering from ABD, which they are trained to treat as a medical emergency, his condition was recorded by the ambulance service as firstly being mental health related, and  secondly as an overdose, so therefore not given a priority grading. Awaiting response.

Awaiting response