Recommendation 1
IOPC recommendationThe IOPC recommends that Wiltshire Police and Avon & Somerset Police create and maintain an up-to-date list of STORM Codes and Transfer Codes on their STORM systems to allow the effective use and transfer of incidents between the two forces.
This follows an independent investigation into Wiltshire Police and Avon & Somerset Constabulary’s handling and response to the report of a missing child (Child A) who eventually came to serious harm. The initial report was reviewed and assessed by Wiltshire Police and the incident log was forwarded to Avon and Somerset Police via the STORM system as it was believed that Child A had gone missing from their force area.
The investigation found that when a force sends an incident log to another police force, the STORM System uses a table which translates the other force’s incident code into those used by the receiving force. However, as Avon & Somerset did not have a translation in the table for ‘MISPER’ (abbreviation for missing person) as used by Wiltshire Police, the STORM System only copied what had been entered in the original incident record. This resulted in the STORM System failing to recognise that the incident related to a missing person and the incident log was therefore not brought to the attention of a control room supervisor in Avon & Somerset Constabulary.
The investigation also found that several codes used by Wiltshire Police and Avon & Somerset Constabulary had either been replaced with different codes or the previous codes were no longer in use, but this information had not been updated or shared with the relevant forces. This resulted in a failure of vital information regarding Child A which had been collated by Wiltshire Police from being copied across on the incident log when it was shared with Avon & Somerset Constabulary. The failure by both police forces to have an updated table of relevant codes for use in the STORM System contributed to a failure of the STORM System to identify the incident as a missing person but also resulted in the failure to transfer vital information which may have assisted in locating Child A sooner.
Accepted
This case had a Forces Management Oversight Group from the start, with the issues from a Wiltshire Police perspective immediately becoming apparent.
The fundamental issue was the fact that the ‘coding’ of the Storm Command & Control System used by Wiltshire Police (Wiltspol) & Avon & Somerset Constabulary (Avsompol) were not aligned.
This fact resulting in much of the detail sent to Avsompol by Wiltspol via the Storm system being incorrectly translated and therefore not fully understood by the recipient Force.
This was identified early on as a clear issue between the Wiltspol & Avsompol systems and once understood, it became clear it was in fact an issue across the Southwest region and into Gwent for Forces using the Storm system.
This was subsequently examined at a regional level with Avsompol taking the lead, identifying significant technical issues.
These have now been addressed by ensuring that all Forces using compatible Storm systems have identical coding ensuring that information can be electronically transferred and understood on a live basis.
The coding used will be reviewed at the regular regional ‘Storm’ user group meetings to ensure that the consistency remains in place.
This is therefore a sustainable, technical solution which should ensure that transfers between forces are using consistent codes and are therefore not missed.