Woman killed after man drives wrong way on A13 – Essex Police, November 2022

The IOPC recommends that Essex Police should take steps to ensure all police vehicles used for pursuit management are fitted with visual recording equipment as soon as is reasonably practicable and amend its policy to cover where necessary both training and operational use of the equipment. This follows an IOPC investigation where Essex Police officers pursued a van which travelled the wrong way round a roundabout before driving up the off-slip and onto a duel carriageway, against the flow of traffic. The police officers abandoned the pursuit and turned off their vehicle’s blue lights and siren. An unmarked Essex Police car, without its blue lights and siren activated, started to ‘shadow’ the van, from the correct carriage way. As the van continued to travel it collided head on with a car. The police vehicles were not fitted with recording equipment, and officers body worn video (BWV) did not show incident due to the angle.The investigation into this incident highlights the pitfalls where either BWV is not activated due to other competing demands placed on pursuit drivers and the angle of such devices does not always show a clear view of the road ahead and/or the actual pursuit activity in its entirety. This does not allow for best evidence retrieval and may potentially hinder an investigation.  Authorised professional practice states: ‘It is highly desirable in pursuit situations to use vehicles fitted with IDR/driver and vehicle data management systems (DVDMS), together with visual recording equipment, for evidential purposes. Such vehicles should be deployed to take part in pursuits where possible. Awaiting response

Awaiting response

The IOPC recommends that Essex Police review how they can assist single crewed dispatchers when a cross border pursuit occurs. This follows an IOPC investigation which found that as the dispatcher was single crewed, they were not able to monitor the radio and contact the external force to inform them of a cross border pursuit at the same time. This required the officers involved in the pursuit to change their own channels in their vehicle which resulted in officers contacting the wrong channel and causing a delay to informing the bordering force of the pursuit in their area. The NPCC Airwave pursuit Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) makes it clear that pursuing drivers should not be subject to the added pressure of having to attempt the changing of Airwave talk groups (radio channels) whilst in pursuit as the lead vehicle. If the pursuit had continued for a longer period of time, such a continuing lack of control room management, authority, assessment of risk against the pursuit criteria and communications failure may have had the ability to influence decision making and risk. The identified learning does not appear to have contributed to the cause of the collision or influenced any decisions by pursuing officers. Awaiting response

Awaiting response