Complaint regarding police response to a call for assistance and death - Devon and Cornwall Police, February 2018

On 18 November 2017 a woman with mental health difficulties contacted Devon and Cornwall Police to report that she was hearing voices in her attic.

An officer attended the address, checked it was secure and established that no-one else was present in the house. Three hour later, the body of the woman was found hanging from a tree in the local area.

This matter was referred to us in February 2018 following a complaint from the sister of the woman who had died. She stated that the officer who initially attended the woman's address should have taken her to hospital or called a family member, that the woman's body was left on public view for two hours and 15 minutes and should have been placed in an ambulance, that an officer made an insensitive remark relating to the woman's drug addiction, and that the same officer failed to keep her updated regarding the investigation into the death.

We reviewed relevant police documentation, call recordings and radio transmissions and obtained witness statements from those involved in responding to the incident. The officer who was alleged to have made the insensitive remark and to have failed to update the complainant provided a written response under misconduct caution. Our investigators also reviewed relevant legislation, as well as local and national police policies and procedures.

Our investigation found no indication that any police officer had committed a criminal offence, or behaved in a manner that would justify disciplinary proceedings. We did not uphold the complaints in relation to the police response to the call and the handling of the scene.

We completed our investigation in August 2018, but waited until the inquest into the woman’s death had taken place, in winter 2019, before publishing its outcome.