Source · IOPC Learning Case

Investigation into police response to a call from a woman reporting assault - Cumbria Constabulary, March 2021

Cumbria Constabulary Ref: 2021/150697 Recommended 19 Apr 2022 Response due 14 Jun 2022

Welfare and vulnerable people

On 21 March 2021, a woman reported to the police that she had been assaulted. An officer attended and took a statement, but no further action was taken. Approximately three hours later the woman sustained a serious head injury from a second assault, believed to be from the same perpetrator.Accounts were taken from the woman as well as officers involved in the decision making to not take further action after the first assault. We obtained and reviewed body worn video …

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Recommendations

1 total

Recommendation 1

The IOPC recommends that Cumbria Constabulary should clarify the process for when victims and witnesses should be provided with an information leaflet following a statement being taken, and how this should be recorded. This follows an IOPC investigation where Cumbria Constabulary’s ‘Giving a statement to police’ leaflet was not provided to the victim, and she later stated that she did not know she had provided a statement. The investigation found that practice differed amongst officers, and because a subsequent incident occurred which meant a different officer took over the investigation this meant that in this case the leaflet was never provided.

Addressed to: Cumbria Constabulary

Linked bodies: Cumbria Constabulary

Accepted

Force response

Recommendation accepted: The process has been updated and clarified by Cumbria Police. A new "Giving a statement to police” leaflet has been created and was released in force Sep 2022. This is currently in digital format which can be emailed directly to witnesses but there are plans to produce a printed version. Internal messaging has been disseminated to all officers advising how and when to use this form. It should be discussed with the witness when filling in the rear of the MG11 form. All witnesses should be offered a copy. Record of a witness being given a copy should be detailed on rear of MG11.