Police response to calls relating to a man before his death – Leicestershire Police, September 2018

In September 2018, Leicestershire Police received three phone calls from people reporting concerns about their friend, and the risks he may pose to the safety of himself and other people. The police recorded the second phone call as an incident and assessed it as a Grade 2 call, meaning that it should be attended by the police, with a targeted response time of two hours. However, the police did not attend the incident.

The other two phone calls were not recorded as incidents. The next morning the callers’ friend was found dead. One of the callers complained to Leicestershire Police about the way their phone call had been handled.

During our investigation, we reviewed evidence including the audio recordings of the phone calls and the police incident log. We reviewed witness statements, including from those who called the police with concerns about their friend, and additional information was gathered from Leicestershire Police about the police response to these calls.

Two members of police staff were interviewed about how they handled calls they received.

Our investigation concluded in August 2019. We waited for all associated proceedings to be completed before publishing our findings.

We concluded there was an indication that a person serving with the police may have behaved in a manner justifying the bringing of disciplinary proceedings.

A hearing was held in January 2020 where misconduct was proven for one member of police staff and the other staff member received management action.

An inquest was held in June 2022 and returned a verdict of death by suicide.

We carefully considered whether there were any learning opportunities arising from the investigation. We make learning recommendations to improve policing and public confidence in the police complaints system and prevent a recurrence of similar incidents.

We did not identify any organisational learning.