Alleged overdose of a man following his arrest – Staffordshire Police, August 2018

On 25 August 2018, two police officers from Staffordshire Police attended a property in Birmingham to arrest a man and conduct a warranted search of his property in relation to an ongoing investigation. During their search of the property the man asked and was permitted to prepare his prescribed medications in anticipation of being taken to custody following the search.

In the latter stages of the search, whilst continuing to prepare his prescribed medications he announced to the two police officers that he had taken an overdose of his medications. The two police officers immediately stopped their search of the property and provided First Aid to the man prior to calling for an ambulance to attend the scene.

The man was treated by paramedics upon their arrival at his home and later taken to hospital, were he received further treatment prior to his later release.

During the investigation, investigators interviewed the officers and examined body worn video of the entire period of time that they attended the property, including their interaction with the man, a female friend present at the beginning of the search and the discussions held with the paramedics following their arrival at the scene.

The body worn video confirmed that the man was given permission by the officer leading the investigation to prepare his prescribed medications for his later removal to custody. The footage also shows that the two officers did not fully supervise the man as they conducted their search of his property.

The officer leading the investigation stated that he had conducted a risk assessment of the man and the location prior to arrival at his home and found nothing that would have alerted him to the course of action the man took during the latter stages of their search of the property. Both officers did admit to not fully supervising the man during their time at his property or whilst he was handling his medication.

Our investigation concluded in June 2019.

We concluded there was no indication the officers may have behaved in a manner that would justify the bringing of disciplinary proceedings or committed a criminal offence. We shared our findings with Staffordshire Police who agreed with our conclusions.

One officer largely followed the risk assessment and direction of the other officer who was acting in the capacity of Senior Investigating Officer (SIO) for this investigation. The SIO should be reminded that a preferred course of action in similar circumstances would have been to recommend to his colleague that he should take control of the medication bag to prevent the risk of an individual attempting an overdose. With the medication safely in the care of his colleague, the man would have been prevented from uncontrolled access to his medications and the potential to take them in unprescribed quantities.

Throughout this investigation, we carefully considered whether there were any opportunities for organisational learning or improvement. In this case, we did not identify any organisational learning.