Man takes his own life after being detained by police - Nottinghamshire Police, April 2018

On 13 April 2018, Nottinghamshire Police responded to a domestic incident. Officers arrested a man at the scene and took him to Mansfield Police Station, where his detention was authorised. At 1.49pm on 14 April 2018, the man was released from custody on conditional bail.

At approximately 8.04pm on the same date, Nottinghamshire Police received a report of concern for the safety of the man. Policing resources were despatched to the man’s home and, when entry was forced, the man was discovered with a ligature around his neck. He was declared dead at the scene.

Nottinghamshire Police referred this to us as a death or serious injury matter. However, during the course of our investigation we found indications of possible misconduct for a police officer. We looked into allegations that the officer, who interviewed the man, may have failed to pass on pertinent information in respect of the man’s mental health, well-being and his risk of self-harm to the custody officer.

The interviewing officer provided an account, which we reviewed alongside relevant policies and procedures, and evidence obtained throughout the investigation. This evidence included witness statements from police officers, incident reports and CCTV and audio recordings.

We were unable to obtain an accurate audio account of the conversation between the custody officer and the interviewing officer, and there was therefore no evidence that directly supported or undermined the interviewing officer’s claim that they would have provided more detail to the custody officer than what was recorded on the custody record.

We were of the opinion that there was insufficient evidence available upon which a reasonable misconduct meeting could find that the actions of the interviewing officer had breached the standards of professional behaviour. However, we were of the opinion that the officer would benefit from management action.

After reviewing our report, Nottinghamshire Police agreed that the officer required performance advice on the quality of verbal updates in general to custody sergeants when returning a detainee from interview, and that this would be delivered by way of management action.

We completed our investigation in September 2019 but waited until the inquest into the man’s death had concluded, in autumn 2019, before publishing its outcome.