Source · IOPC Learning Case

Recommendation - Essex Police, August 2025

Essex Police Ref: 2024/002624 Recommended 1 Aug 2025 Response due 26 Sep 2025

Death and serious injury

We identified organisational learning after a death or serious injury review in which there was confusion regarding which officer was responsible for ensuring Police National Computer checks had been completed.

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Recommendations

1 total

Recommendation 1

The IOPC recommends that Essex Police should review its policy in relation to conducting Police National Computer (PNC) checks to clarify whose responsibility it is to ensure they are completed. This recommendation has arisen as a result of a Death or Serious Injury review in which there was an element of confusion regarding which officer was responsible for ensuring PNC checks had been completed. This meant that the PNC checks were not completed and a man within the property, who was 'wanted', was not arrested and was later found deceased through non-suspicious circumstances.

Addressed to: Essex Police

Linked bodies: Essex Police

Not accepted

Force response

Not accepted This is not a plausible recommendation. Completion of checks at a live incident comes down to basic command and control and effective communications between officers on scene. It is not possible to put into procedure who will complete PNC checks (as well as other intelligence checks) at the scene of an incident as this will be a dynamic assessment. This is taught both to officers in their initial training and also through the tutoring programme.As such, the error in this incident is attributed to individual officers’ errors/oversights not an issue with the force’s policy/procedure. The Essex PNC Bureau manager has been consulted, and the National PNC manual does not state under what conditions PNC checks have to be performed. It outlines any checks must be a lawful policing purpose.As such, it is an officers’ due diligence and professional decision making which would dictate when to access the PNC for a policing purpose.