Response to threats to kills - Bedfordshire Police, July 2018
On 14 July 2018 a man contacted Bedfordshire Police to report that a man was threatening to kill him. Both men were tenants in the same house. Bedfordshire Police responded to the incident. They arrested the man who had allegedly made the threats and took him into custody. The man was later released following a decision from the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), which stated there was insufficient evidence to charge the man with the offence of threats to kill.
Just after 1am on 15 July the man contacted Bedfordshire Police a second time to report the same man had left a threatening note on his bedroom door. The man said he had tried staying in a hotel but had been unable to find a room. Police advised him to remain in his bedroom with the door locked until officers arrived.
Bedfordshire Police responded to the incident at approximately 5am after ambulance staff had reported that a man (the initial caller) had received a serious head injury after being attacked by the man who had allegedly threatened him previously.
During the investigation various evidence was gathered. IOPC investigators took witness statements from force control room staff involved in the incident, custody staff and the man who was injured. Material was obtained and analysed alongside force and national policy and guidance. Included in this material was information relating to the allocation of police response units that was examined to establish the reasons for the delay in the police response.
The evidence suggested that, due to the CPS charging decision and no further significant lines of enquiry being available, no legal grounds existed to allow bail conditions to be placed upon the man after his arrest on 14 July. Bedfordshire Police called the man who had contacted them to let him know that they had released the other man and to advise him to stay elsewhere for the night. We were of the opinion that safeguarding measures put in place were therefore appropriate in the circumstances.
Evidence showed that, during the period of 1am to 5am on 15 July, no response units were listed as available to respond to this incident. All units on shift were responding to ‘immediate’ incidents of equal priority. The force control room was also short staffed at the time of the incident and the volume of calls particularly high during this period. Based on the evidence available we were of the opinion that the time taken to allocate resources to arrive at the man’s home on 15 July was a result of all response units being unavailable due to the extremely high service user demand.
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 November 2018.
After reviewing our report, Bedfordshire Police agreed.