Police contact with a woman before her death - South Yorkshire Police, June 2019

On 25 June 2019, South Yorkshire Police (SYP) attended an address in Sheffield following a report from the ambulance service of a potential suicide. When they arrived at the house, officers found a woman dead.

She was subsequently identified, and it was revealed the she was the complainant in an ongoing domestic violence investigation being conducted by SYP. She had also been reported as a missing person earlier that day.

An inquest into the woman’s death, held in autumn 2019, concluded the woman had taken her own life.

Our investigators reviewed SYP’s interactions with the dead woman regarding the ongoing investigation. They also obtained statements from police officers, family members and friends involved in the missing person investigation. We also reviewed SYP documentation produced during the investigation, together with relevant SYP and national policies and procedures.

Having reviewed the evidence, we formed the opinion that officers had acted appropriately in not conducting an earlier search of the woman’s home. The information passed to the call handler appeared to give the impression that the woman’s house had already been entered and searched by friends and/or family members. This was an unfortunate confusion which likely affected the decision making, but not the response grading, which, in our view, was entirely suitable in the circumstances. In the absence of any suspicion to suggest this information was deliberately misleading, we did not consider this was an improper assumption to have been made.

The investigation concluded there was no indication any police officer or police staff member may have behaved in a manner that would justify the bringing of disciplinary proceedings or committed a criminal offence. All police officers and staff members co-operated fully with this investigation.

We completed our investigation in December 2019.

In the course of our investigation we identified some areas of improvement for SYP around having a more formal process for providing information to complainants following a domestic violence protection order (DVPO) application at court, including the way updates are provided.

After reviewing our report, the force advised it has now created a team whose sole function will be the management of DVPOs, including keeping victims updated of outcomes.