Man found dead after concerns for his welfare reported - West Midlands Police, November 2018

On 5 November 2018 the West Midlands Police (WMP) Force Contact Centre (FCC) received a report for the concerns for the safety of a man in Walsall who had not been in contact with his sister for five days. It was reported the man was an alcoholic and took medication for depression. He was prone to falling due to intoxication, and had recently taken an accidental overdose of his medication, which led to hospitalisation.

WMP officers were initially deployed to the man’s address a few hours after the report, but as they arrived were redeployed to a more immediate incident before they were able to try to locate the man.

WMP officers were deployed to the man’s address the following evening, where they found him, collapsed. Paramedics were called but he was declared dead at the scene. A post-mortem was conducted, which revealed the man had died of natural causes from a spontaneous massive intra-cerebral haemorrhage.

Our investigators obtained and reviewed all the documents relating to the incident, the audio from the 101 call, witness statements from staff within the FCC and from the attending officers, as well as police system data pertaining to the level of incidents and resources during the time period in question.

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

Although there was no indication WMP contributed to the man’s death, the investigation highlighted some systemic failures to manage the incident appropriately and efficiently, and a lack of meaningful updates submitted on the log. We recommended retraining for police staff to ensure correct procedures were followed, and the development of a more robust incident management process with increased supervisory oversight. We completed our investigation in November 2019.

After reviewing our report WMP advised that they are introducing a new command and control system. The system will manage logs differently, allowing them to be viewed in different ways and prioritised against risk, which should enable staff to focus on the priority logs. The force is also carrying out work to embed the escalation process and joint work with Force Response to improve the management of incidents.