Recommendations - Essex Police, September 2019
A woman called Essex Police to express concerns about her son and his partner after she received a call from them where there was shouting and they hung up. When police arrived at their home, they found the man’s partner had suffered multiple stab wounds. She later died at the scene. The woman’s son was arrested at the scene and later charged with her murder.
IOPC reference
Recommendations
It was identified during the IOPC investigation, that control room staff in Essex Police do not receive any notification when calls go past their target response time. Essex Police should introduce a measure for control room staff to be notified when calls go past their target response times.
Do you accept the recommendation?
Yes
Accepted action:
Whilst we accept the recommendation submitted, the solution to address this issue will require amendments to the STORM Command and Control IT platform. This would involve the creation of an electronic timed flag within the system to highlight when the relevant expriy time is nearing. Therefore, achieving the solution will rely upon the technical ability to change the current STORM system to accommodate this facility.
The Force needs the opportunity to explore the ability and capability of the system to be upgraded with this new functionality being incorporated further, before we can say with confidence that it is achievable. This is being pursued by the Head of the Contact Management Command and the Head of the Force Control Room with IT as an ongoing work in progress.
The IOPC investigated a complaint relating to the information given by call handlers in the force control room (FCR) to callers. Essex Police procedure on responding to incidents states that, for emergency graded incidents, callers should be given an estimated time of arrival (ETA). However, this complaint related to a call which was graded as ‘significant’. The policy does not stipulate what should happen in other graded calls or whether updates about delays should be given. Essex Police confirmed that there is no local policy that sets this out to FCR staff. The ‘National Contact Management Principles and Guidance’ states that, “where a non-emergency contact requires a priority/prompt response, the caller should expect… the contact handler to give an estimated time of arrival”. This guidance does not have appear to have been adapted into Essex force policy. Given the multitude of calls to the FCR, it may not be reasonable to require staff within the FCR to call members of the public with updates if there are going to be delays in police attendance. However, it may be reasonable to follow the above national guidance to give callers a rough ETA based on the grading and request that if they don’t hear within this time they can call back to request an update.
Essex Police should reflect national guidance into force policy by ensuring Force Control Room staff provide callers with the grading which has been assigned and an estimate of when to expect a police response. Essex Force Control Room should advise callers if they do not hear anything within this time they can call back for an update.
Do you accept the recommendation?
Yes
Accepted action:
This recommendation has been agreed and adopted. This has been implemented by FCR for all Emergency and Priority graded incidents, where this information in now provided. This change in policy and process is currently allocated to [the Head of FCR] as the action owner for review and compliance of this change.