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. The Committee produces bulletins with articles containing lessons from investigations.
Responding to a threat to kill
A man was admitted to a psychiatric hospital after he attempted suicide. While there, he told hospital staff
he had had thoughts of killing his wife and then himself. He discharged himself against medical advice and said that he would go to his parents’ house rather than the family home.
As he was not detainable under the Mental Health Act 1983, staff agreed with him that they would tell the police and his wife of the nature of his thoughts. A psychiatric nurse telephoned the force and told a controller that the man had threatened to kill his wife.
When the controller took the call, she was also trying to research an abandoned 999 call and, distracted, she did not take in that the threats were to kill; nor did she ask questions to identify risk factors as required by force policy (this policy was however past its expiry date).
She took the view that the call was for advice only and asked the nurse to tell the man’s wife to dial 999 if her husband made any threats against her. She judged that the risk was not high as the man had been let out of hospital and the call had come from a third party. The controller did not record the call on the control room computerised system or call out officers; nor did she bring it to the attention of a supervisor for the risk to be assessed.
Three days later a neighbour called the police after hearing screams from within the man’s family home.
The operator who took the call graded the call as Grade 2 (non-emergency contact). However, as there was a risk of danger to life/serious injury or immediate use of violence, the call should have been graded as Grade 1 (emergency contact).
Officers went to the house and found the man’s wife dead at the scene. Her husband was later convicted of her murder.
Key questions – for policy makers/managers:
• Do you have a supervision process in place to ensure calls are graded/regraded as appropriate?
• Do you dip sample calls regularly to ensure accuracy of call grading and compliance with the National Call Handling Standards?
• Do you have a mechanism to trigger a review of out-of-date policies?
Click on the link below for the full learning report
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