Man found dead following police contact and concern for welfare report - West Midlands Police, May 2018

On 23 May 2018 West Midlands Police (WMP) officers attended the scene of an incident where an intoxicated man had broken a window and gained access to a property. When they arrived, they identified the man was the occupant of the address. Officers called an ambulance due to concerns about the man’s welfare. He was taken to hospital, where he absconded the following morning. The hospital contacted WMP to report this, but the decision was made not to deploy officers.

On 30 May WMP was informed that the man had not been seen since absconding and that he had various mental health issues, including anxiety and depression.

On 31 May officers went to his home and found him dead. A post-mortem later established that the man had died of natural causes, including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and hypertensive heart disease.

Our investigators gathered evidence in the form of witness statements, medical information and incident logs, and reviewed it in conjunction with appropriate policy and guidance.

During the investigation we found no evidence indicating that any member of the police had acted against policy and guidance or contributed to or caused the man’s death.

Evidence indicated that, when the hospital called WMP to inform them that the man had absconded, at no point was the contact handler informed of the man’s alcohol issues, mental ill health or why he was admitted to hospital. Therefore, we were satisfied that, based on the information provided to the contact handler, the decision not to deploy was appropriate.

The call on 30 May reporting concern for the man’s welfare was graded as requiring a response ‘as soon as possible and within 60 minutes’. We were of the opinion that the call was correctly graded. WMP did not attend the man’s home for 19 hours. After considering the resources available on that day and the number of calls requiring police attendance, we were of the view that, although the delay was of a concern, the resourcing situation on the day in question did not permit the call regarding the man to be attended sooner without leaving higher risk incidents unattended.

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, or had committed a criminal offence.