Police response to welfare concerns of man – Lancashire Constabulary, August 2021

In August 2021, a woman telephoned 999 to report concerns about her husband, who was missing from a hotel and had called her and suggested that he was to end his life. Even though the woman was in Merseyside, the call was connected to Lancashire Constabulary’s control room. The incident was transferred to Merseyside Police, but the woman then returned to her home address in Lancashire. The man’s car passed an ANPR camera in Cumbria, and so Cumbria Constabulary was also involved in the incident.

Though initially treated as a concern for welfare, the matter was later changed to a missing persons incident and managed primarily by Lancashire Constabulary. The man was found dead later the same day in Cumbria by a member of the public.

We obtained evidence such as the incident logs and audio of the 999 call. We took witness statements from the call handler, radio operators, incident managers and officers who were deployed.

Our investigation concluded in August 2022.

We concluded there was no indication any police officer may have behaved in a manner that would justify the bringing of disciplinary proceedings or committed a criminal offence.

An inquest in September 2022 recorded a verdict as suicide.

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.

We considered the process attached to the ownership of a missing person investigation when different police forces are involved. We determined that the APP guidance provides sufficient advice on this matter, and it would not be helpful to be more prescriptive. Therefore, we did not issue any organisational learning recommendations.

Instead, minor individual learning points were raised to members of staff in Merseyside Police and Lancashire Constabulary.