Man dies following contact with police - Staffordshire Police, July 2018

On 1 July 2018 at 5.07pm, a man contacted Staffordshire Police to report that he suspected his neighbour had gained access to his property while he was not home. The man, who was out of the force area at the time of making the call, was advised that officers could not attend if he was not there, but to call back when he had returned home should he suspect someone had entered.

At 8.15pm, the man requested a call back from Staffordshire Police, and at 8.29pm a call handler spoke with him about the incident he reported earlier. The man made several comments during this call that could have raised concerns around his welfare and state of mind. At 8.46pm, the man terminated the call. The call taker made two attempts to call him back, but there was no answer and a message was left asking the man to call back.

At 8.57pm, Network Rail contacted British Transport Police to report that a train had struck a person, who was later identified as the man who had called Staffordshire Police earlier. The man was pronounced dead by paramedics shortly after.

Our investigators interviewed the call handler who spoke with the man at 8.29pm under misconduct caution. We analysed and compared their statement to the call recording, incident log and Staffordshire Police policies.

During the investigation there was an indication that the call handler may have behaved in a manner that would justify the bringing of disciplinary proceedings. No criminal offences were identified.

Based on the evidence available, we were of the opinion that the call handler may have a case to answer for misconduct.

After reviewing our report, Staffordshire Police agreed that the call handler had a case to answer for misconduct. The force proposed to deal with this through management action, in the form of words of advice linked to a formalised performance action plan, to address the performance issues and training requirements identified by our investigation.

We agreed that their proposal was appropriate.