Welfare concerns raised to police - Northamptonshire Police, June 2021

On 5 June 2021, the manager of a care team contacted Northamptonshire police to report a concern for welfare of a client. She reported that the man had told her that his neighbours were threatening to harm him, and he wanted police to attend his flat. The police opened an incident log and attempted to call the male with no response. The incident response level was set at a Grade 2 response. 

On 7 June, the care team manager contacted the police to inform them she still had not heard from the male despite several visits to his address, unanswered phone calls, sending text messages and his intercom was “switched off”. She informed the police that she had contacted the local hospitals but he had not been admitted. The incident log remained open and supervisors conducted regular reviews; however, no officers were available to attend at that time or over subsequent days. 

On the morning of 12 June, officers attended the male’s address and there was no answer. The incident was transferred to the missing person’s team who conducted enquiries. The property was visited again and the male was found dead in his flat that evening when officers forced entry.

Our investigators reviewed the telephone calls, the incident log and spoke to the officer involved in dealing with this incident. Investigators also reviewed the relevant local and national policies, procedures, and guidance. The investigation found that the lack of officers available to respond affected the handling of the incident. 

The investigation concluded there was an indication the call handler who failed to log the call on 7 June may have behaved in a manner that could justify the bringing of disciplinary proceedings or committed a criminal offence. The IOPC served the call handler with a notice of investigation and they fully cooperated with the investigation.

We did find a case to answer for misconduct for the call handler but decided the matter could be resolved through a conversation with her line manager.

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. 

In this case, the investigation has not identified any learning.