Source · IOPC Learning Case

Recommendation - Derbyshire Constabulary, November 2020

Derbyshire Constabulary Ref: 2019/128310 Recommended 18 Nov 2020 Response due 13 Jan 2021

Welfare and vulnerable people

A call was received by Derbyshire Police from a member of the public, who had found a body hanging from a tree in a public area. Due to resourcing issues, officers did not attend the scene until 47 minutes after the call. The control room operation and supervisor overlooked calling an ambulance for the male, despite the time delay in officers attending. It has since transpired that there is no official policy in force around when an ambulance should be …

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Recommendations

1 total

Recommendation 1

The IOPC recommends that Derbyshire Police considers mandating the responsibilty of calling an ambulance to a specific role within the Force Control Room. This learning has been identified following a DSI review, where it was established that an ambulance was not requested by a control room operator upon the report of a body being found hanging in a public area. Due to resourcing issues, the first officers did not arrive on the scene until 47 minutes after the original call. It may have been more appropriate for an ambulance to have been asked to attend in this timeframe, to establish if there were any signs of life before officers before police were able to attend. It has since been established that the responsibilty of calling an ambulance is not that there is no policy in place for operators that dictates when an ambulance should be called, based on a particular set of circumstances. Do you accept the recommendation? Yes

Addressed to: Derbyshire Police

Linked bodies: Derbyshire Constabulary

Accepted

Force response

Accepted action: After consultations with business owners in our Force Control Room, the recommendations have been accepted. The calling of an ambulance in the circumstances reported in this matter will be mandated to the despatcher who receives the incident. The wording will take the form of; “Anyone in receipt of an incident on their despatch list whereby the informant is not the ambulance service or a medical professional capable of declaring death and where the incident relates to a report indicating suicide/death and there is no evidence that an ambulance has been called then one must be called immediately by a buddy or another available operator. The time of the call must be evidenced on the CW log.” This will be implemented with immediate effect.