Recommendations - Wiltshire Police, April 2026

The IOPC recommends that Wiltshire Police and Avon & Somerset Police create and maintain an up-to-date list of STORM Codes and Transfer Codes on their STORM systems to allow the effective use and transfer of incidents between the two forces. 

This follows an independent investigation into Wiltshire Police and Avon & Somerset Constabulary’s handling and response to the report of a missing child (Child A) who eventually came to serious harm. The initial report was reviewed and assessed by Wiltshire Police and the incident log was forwarded to Avon and Somerset Police via the STORM system as it was believed that Child A had gone missing from their force area. 

The investigation found that when a force sends an incident log to another police force, the STORM System uses a table which translates the other force’s incident code into those used by the receiving force. However, as Avon & Somerset did not have a translation in the table for ‘MISPER’ (abbreviation for missing person) as used by Wiltshire Police, the STORM System only copied what had been entered in the original incident record. This resulted in the STORM System failing to recognise that the incident related to a missing person and the incident log was therefore not brought to the attention of a control room supervisor in Avon & Somerset Constabulary.

The investigation also found that several codes used by Wiltshire Police and Avon & Somerset Constabulary had either been replaced with different codes or the previous codes were no longer in use, but this information had not been updated or shared with the relevant forces. This resulted in a failure of vital information regarding Child A which had been collated by Wiltshire Police from being copied across on the incident log when it was shared with Avon & Somerset Constabulary. The failure by both police forces to have an updated table of relevant codes for use in the STORM System contributed to a failure of the STORM System to identify the incident as a missing person but also resulted in the failure to transfer vital information which may have assisted in locating Child A sooner.  

Accepted

This case had a Forces Management Oversight Group from the start, with the issues from a Wiltshire Police perspective immediately becoming apparent.

The fundamental issue was the fact that the ‘coding’ of the Storm Command & Control System used by Wiltshire Police (Wiltspol) & Avon & Somerset Constabulary (Avsompol) were not aligned. 

This fact resulting in much of the detail sent to Avsompol by Wiltspol via the Storm system being incorrectly translated and therefore not fully understood by the recipient Force.

This was identified early on as a clear issue between the Wiltspol & Avsompol systems and once understood, it became clear it was in fact an issue across the Southwest region and into Gwent for Forces using the Storm system.

This was subsequently examined at a regional level with Avsompol taking the lead, identifying significant technical issues.

These have now been addressed by ensuring that all Forces using compatible Storm systems have identical coding ensuring that information can be electronically transferred and understood on a live basis.

The coding used will be reviewed at the regular regional ‘Storm’ user group meetings to ensure that the consistency remains in place.

This is therefore a sustainable, technical solution which should ensure that transfers between forces are using consistent codes and are therefore not missed.

The IOPC recommends that Wiltshire Police review the requirement that only a Force Incident Manager (FIM) is responsible for reviewing a missing persons incident to ensure any actions and decisions are not delayed due to competing operational priorities.  

This follows an independent investigation into Wiltshire Police and Avon and Somerset Constabulary’s handling and response to the report of a missing child (Child A) who eventually came to serious harm. 

When the initial missing report was made to Wiltshire Police, the FIM with responsibility for grading Child A’s risk assessment was committed to other incidents. It took a total of four hours before the FIM was able to complete the risk assessment grading. 

At Wiltshire Police the sole responsibility for grading risk assessments for incident logs lies with the FIM and the force’s policy dictates it cannot be delegated to another individual if the FIM becomes unavailable. The force should review this arrangement and ensure any relevant policies are updated.

Accepted

This issue was immediately recorded and submitted to the Wiltshire Police Organisational Learning Board via the submission of a PSD lessons Learnt report for consideration by the Senior Management within the Contact Management environment.

It was accepted that on this occasion the single on duty Control Room FIM (Force Incident Manger) was required to concentrate entirely for a significant period of time on a single critical incident – viz a potentially fatal Police Vehicle Collision that indeed caused a further live referral to the IOPC.

This caused a significant delay in the formal assessment of the missing female by the FIM on this occasion, although it did not prevent immediate action being taken by others under the direction of the geographical response Duty Inspector, assisted by the Police Staff Control Room Supervisor (FORS).

Whilst the FORS position does not permit the formal assessment of reported missing persons due to the grading of the role, they are able to direct and oversee actions pending the formal assessment, and on this occasion the appropriate actions had been taken by others whilst the FIM was committed, but as outlined above these were essentially thwarted by the ‘Storm’ command and control log issues.

Whilst it is currently not possible for a FORS to carry out a formal assessment, since this incident and following a review of practises, the Wiltshire Police Control Room have moved from a five-team operating model to a four, retaining the same staff quota.

This has had the effect of each team now having two ‘FIM’ posts as opposed to one and invariably there are now two FIMS on duty providing greater resilience.