Woman found dead after welfare concerns reported – Northumbria Police, March 2021

In March 2021, Northumbria Police officers attended an address following receipt of a text message from a woman expressing concern for her neighbour. Upon their arrival, the officers met with a woman who was upset and distressed. The officers engaged with the woman, but she declined all assistance. The officers took advice from the force mental health Street Triage Team who advised them that, in the circumstances, they should leave the house. At that point, the police officers had no lawful authority to remove the woman from her home under mental health legislation and they left the property.

After the officers left, it was established that an unidentified woman had sent a text message to a London based charity saying that she was going to take her own life. The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) made various attempts to identify and locate the woman and, on doing so, passed her name and location to Northumbria Police. Northumbria Police identified that it was the same woman with whom the officers had previously interacted. Northumbria Police promptly despatched the original attending officers back to the woman’s home. The officers attended where the woman was found hanging. The officers administered CPR and called for an ambulance. Despite the attempts of the police officers and paramedics, the woman was later pronounced dead.

We reviewed officer body worn video footage, radio transmissions, telephone call recordings, incident reports, intelligence information, police policies and guidance documents, mental health legislation and other relevant local documentation. We also obtained statements from police officers and police civilian staff involved in this incident.
We concluded our investigation in July 2021 and shared our report with both Northumbria Police and MPS who agreed with our findings.

Our investigation concluded there was no indication any police officer or staff from either Northumbria Police or the MPS may have behaved in a manner that would justify the bringing of disciplinary proceedings or committed a criminal offence. All police officers and staff were treated as witnesses and cooperated fully with this investigation.

The inquest into the woman’s death took place in February 2022. HM Coroner reached a narrative conclusion that the woman died from cardiac arrest associated with hanging, due to post traumatic stress disorder and intoxication.

We agreed with the Coroner who commended the officers’ efforts to try to save the woman’s life in the difficult circumstances they faced.

We carefully considered whether there were any learning opportunities arising from the investigation. We make learning recommendations to improve policing and public confidence in the police complaints system and prevent a recurrence of similar incidents. In this case, the investigation did not identify any learning.