The Learning the Lessons Committee is a multi-agency committee established to disseminate and promote learning across the police service. Its members are: ACPO, APA, Home Office, IPCC, HMIC and the NPIA.

Learning the Lessons bulletins summarise investigations conducted by the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) or police forces where learning opportunities have been identified.

Police forces facing similar situations to those described can use the experience of other forces to improve their policies and practices.

The bulletin challenges forces to ask "Could it happen here?"

This case is an example of cases referred to in the article published in December 2011 in respect of 'General' matters and is aimed at police officers and staff working in Professional Standards Departments (PSDs). It draws out the fact that communication to the complainant must be in a language easily understood by term and that 'police jargon' and / or abbreviations are not acceptable.

The findings have been presented to draw out lessons for future practice.

Supporting The Ambulance Service

The ambulance service requested police attendance at a residential property after they were called out to treat a man who had cut his wrists with a knife.

In accordance with force and ambulance service protocols, ambulance staff were instructed to take up a static position close to the address until police arrived.

Within three minutes a double crewed police car had been assigned to the incident, although this was not the nearest available unit to the incident. A Police Support Officer (PSO) had also volunteered to attend.

Shortly after the force contacted the caller, and it was confirmed that the man was still cutting himself.

Six minutes after the initial call two police vehicles had been deployed to the incident, and within a further two minutes the PSO had arrived at the rendezvous point. In line with force policy the PSO was not permitted to be the first responder to any Grade 1 incident, especially where a knife had been referred to. Therefore, the PSO and ambulance had to wait until the second vehicle arrived before they could approach the property.

The risks involved increased with the delay and while policies were adhered to, opportunities to gain more information about the location of other units, the layout of the premises and enquiring of the family via an open phone line about what was happening were not taken.

The second vehicle arrived nine minutes later, at which time the two police units and the ambulance staff approached the premises.

The male was found injured inside the property and ambulance staff administered first aid. The man was taken to hospital, but died while receiving treatment.

A delay in meeting the man’s parents was a lost opportunity to collect evidence which could have been relevant to the investigation.

Action taken by this force:

• The force ensures lessons learnt are logged and implemented and conducts debriefings after major incidents where the police response was delayed.
• All Senior Investigating Officers have been encouraged to consider assigning a Family Liaison Officer (FLO) to cases that involve a fatality and to document any decisions to not deploy FLOs.

See learning report for details of other action taken

Key questions for policy makers/managers:

• How do you track officers’ locations and availability for deployment, and how do you ensure the nearest available appropriate unit is deployed to grade 1 incidents?
• Where knives, self harm or firearms are mentioned in initial calls, would you always encourage officers to keep the caller on the line until the police arrive, to help keep lines of communication open and gather all available information as the incident develops, or call the caller back if the call has been interrupted?
• Where units cannot be deployed to the scene quickly, would you always encourage officers to call back informants to provide them with an update and to gain more information?

Key questions for police officers/staff:

• What would you have done to gain more information about the unfolding incident while you were waiting for the second vehicle to arrive?

Click here for a link to the full learning report