Police actions after woman reported missing - Suffolk Constabulary, December 2018

On 3 December 2018 at approximately 11.20pm, Suffolk Constabulary control room received a call from a member of the public, reporting concerns about her partner. The force recorded the incident as a missing person and conducted enquiries to locate the woman. Officers established a possible location for the missing person, based in Essex.

Suffolk Constabulary officers then sent an email to Essex Police requesting officers attend the property. Officers went to the property in the early hours of 4 December 2018 and discovered the woman unresponsive. Paramedics and officers performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) on the woman, but she was declared dead at 4.50am.

Suffolk Constabulary referred this to matter us as a ‘death or serious injury’. In addition, the woman’s partner raised complaints with our investigators regarding officers’ response to the incident and subsequent actions.

During the investigation, our investigators obtained and reviewed airwave recordings, documentary evidence and body-worn video footage. They also analysed the relevant policies and procedures. Police witnesses provided a number of accounts clarifying their respective roles and involvement in the incident and we obtained a statement from the woman’s partner.

The evidence showed that Suffolk Constabulary followed the correct missing person procedure by despatching an officer to her partner’s address. Evidence also showed that Essex Police was requested to conduct the welfare check via email at 12.55am. Once officers were despatched to the incident they were on the scene within one hour. When they saw the woman, they immediately requested an ambulance, and were instrumental in performing the CPR.

The woman’s partner complained of feeling “let down” by the police, who did not contact or visit the woman’s mother. It appears that contact was not made as requested, which would have been a sensible line of enquiry. We upheld the complaint. We also upheld a complaint that a police officer who went to see the woman’s partner on 3 December made a comment that was insensitive in the circumstances. We did not uphold other complaints.

Based on the evidence available we found no indication that any person serving with the police may have behaved in a manner that would justify the bringing of disciplinary proceedings, or had committed a criminal offence.

We completed our investigation in June 2019 but waited until the inquest into the woman’s death had taken place, in summer 2019, to publish its outcome.