Source · IOPC Learning Case

Police response for welfare concerns - Sussex Police, November 2021

Sussex Police Ref: 2021/161838 Recommended 25 Jan 2023 Response due 22 Mar 2023

Death and serious injury Welfare and vulnerable people

Case background

Text published by the IOPC.

In November 2021, a woman contacted Sussex Police and told them she wanted to report the behaviour of a neighbour and her concerns about a friend. During the call, she told Sussex Police that she had tried to take her own life earlier that evening. She did not provide the police details or those of her friend or her neighbour, but told the officer that she did not want police or an ambulance. After the call ended the officer traced the woman's details from her telephone number and requested ambulance attendance. When the ambulance arrived at her home, she was found dead.

Our investigation focused on whether police response was appropriate and in line with local and national policy and guidance. The investigation also considered whether Sussex Police appropriately took into account relevant information they held about the woman's background.

We reviewed call recordings and obtained evidence from Sussex Police. We obtained information from Sussex Police about policy and guidance to contact officers. We obtained information from South East Coast Ambulance Service about their procedures, and their response following the request from Sussex Police that an ambulance attend her home.

Our investigation concluded in November 2022 but we waited for all proceedings to finish before publishing our findings.

We concluded there was no indication any police officer may have behaved in a manner that would justify the bringing of disciplinary proceedings or committed a criminal offence.

We carefully considered whether there were any learning opportunities arising from the investigation. We make learning recommendations to improve policing and public confidence in the police complaints system, and prevent a recurrence of similar incidents.

In this case, the investigation identified areas of organisational learning and issued recommendations to Sussex Police.

Recommendations and responses

2 indexed

Recommendation 1

Link to recommendation · Accepted

Addressed to: Sussex Police

Linked bodies: Sussex Police

IOPC recommendation

The IOPC recommends that Sussex Police provides specific guidance or training to contact officers on how to elicit information during a 999 or 101 call from people who have attempted suicide.

This follows an IOPC investigation where it was identified that a member of the public who contacted Sussex Police by telephone told the contact officer of attempts she had made to take her own life. The contact officer later acknowledged that she had not directly probed the caller about whether she planned to harm herself again. After the initial call to the police, the woman was found deceased by ambulance staff. Ensuring contact officers have the appropriate training and guidance on eliciting further information from people who have apparently attempted suicide will help to ensure more informed assessments of the immediacy of risk to life.

Response published by the IOPC

Accepted:

The recommendation is accepted in full. However, it is worth noting that having risk based conversations using THRIVE to understand and develop information for suicidal callers is trained to new contact officers.

The attached powerpoint is taken from a wider training package given to all new Contact Officers. This clearly details some probing questions to encourage eliciting further information. Following the learning from this case we will be ensuring that this is also covered in rotational training for existing staff this will then cover all those working in the contact centre.

This recommendation will be implemented by Force Contact Control Department.

Check the original case on the IOPC website

Recommendation 2

Link to recommendation · Accepted

Addressed to: Sussex Police

Linked bodies: Sussex Police

IOPC recommendation

The IOPC recommends that Sussex Police provides specific guidance to contact officers on when they are required to communicate recorded warning markers held by Sussex police when they are requesting South East Coast Ambulance Service (SECAMB) attendance.

This follows an IOPC investigation where a woman took her own life following a call to the police. The contact officer was aware of the woman’s warning markers for suicide and self-harm, but it was determined that due to the fact there was no immediate risk to life, a police response was not required. The contact officer requested SECAMB attendance, which was given a two-hour response time, but she did not inform SECAMB of the warning markers. While there was no evidence the contact officer deviated from any policy or guidance, there was intelligence held on Sussex Police's systems that could have been relayed to SECAMB to inform their decision making.

Response published by the IOPC

Recommendation accepted:

This recommendation is accepted in full. Sussex Police will need to understand what levels of information can be shared and for what purposes with guidance created, shared and communicated to contact handlers and controllers. This will include updating both initial and rotational training to ensure all staff are aware of the training.

This recommendation will be implemented by Force Contact Control Department

Check the original case on the IOPC website