Man found dead after concern for welfare report - West Midlands Police, June 2019

On the morning of 13 June 2019 a man attended a West Midlands Police (WMP) Station expressing concern due to a suicidal message he had received from his friend earlier that day. The incident was graded as P2 (response within 60 minutes). Officers subsequently went to the man’s friend’s home and found him dead.

WMP referred this to us on 14 June 2019 as a Death or Serious Injury referral.

Our investigation focused on the initial classification and the time taken to attend. We obtained statements from police officers, police staff, the man’s friend and his next of kin. We also analysed the incident log.

During the investigation, there was no indication any police officer or staff member had behaved in a manner that would justify the bringing of disciplinary proceedings or had committed a criminal offence.

We identified broad learning for the force as a whole. We recommended that WMP should check dispatchers’ understanding of the terminology and deliver additional learning/training to avoid a repeat. We also suggested that the force should consider reminding all staff to challenge the grading of an incident if they think the response is not appropriate. We recommended that WMP should consider checking/addressing the knowledge of all control room staff in this regard.

We completed our investigation in October 2019.

After reviewing our report WMP confirmed it had shared the points of learning we raised with the senior Force Contact management team.