Response to report of assault - West Midlands Police, June 2017

On 27 June 2017 a woman went to see her GP after being assaulted by her husband. The doctor made a referral to a support worker who contacted West Midlands Police on the same day regarding the abuse. The support worker and the woman went to a police station in order to report the abuse. The woman could not be seen by an officer when she was at the station. Her details were taken and a response grade was given to the call.

Call logs note that, due to resourcing issues, an officer could not be allocated to visit the woman. The call log was reviewed during 28 June and 29 June. On 30 June officers tried unsuccessfully to contact the woman’s support worker and left a message.

On 30 June the woman’s support worker contacted the force after the woman had advised her that her husband had sexually assaulted her on 28 June.

During the investigation we considered the force’s policies around grading and domestic abuse to first understand if the initial call was correctly graded. We were of the opinion that the call was appropriately graded. We then reviewed resourcing information and found that, across the three days that this incident was awaiting allocation of an officer, the force area concerned had outstanding incidents of a higher grading.

Based on the evidence available, we found no indication that any person serving with the police may have behaved in a manner that would justify the bringing of disciplinary proceedings.