Welfare concerns raised for teenager - Devon and Cornwall Police, September 2020

In September 2020, Devon & Cornwall Police created a log to record a report that a teenage boy had expressed suicidal thoughts and had left his home address. The call was logged as a concern for welfare, graded as requiring a priority response and a medium risk.  Later that evening, the log was updated to reflect that he had returned home but did not want to tell officers anything.

An additional log was created two hours later, noting that he had left home again. This call was logged as a missing person concern and graded as requiring an immediate response. It was initially risk assessed as medium risk, but later amended to high risk. In the early hours of the next morning, the teenager was found dead.

IOPC investigators obtained incident logs, body-worn video, airwave recordings and telephone recordings as well as witness statements from a number of police officers involved in this incident. Investigators also interviewed family members.

Our investigation concluded in August 2021. An inquest was held in March 2023.

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

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 has not identified any learning