Man found injured after contact with police - West Yorkshire Police, November 2017

A man contacted West Yorkshire Police (WYP) by telephone on 13 November 2017 claiming that people were trying to enter his home and threatening him. The man was panicking and the police call handler thought he was credible. A female friend took over the call and assured police staff that there was no threat and the man had mental health problems. WYP then liaised with the Yorkshire Ambulance Service; WYP had no further contact with the man. In the early hours of 14 November 2017, the man was found on the ground outside his home with serious, non-fatal injuries that he apparently sustained as a result of falling from a first floor window in his home.

Our investigators obtained statements from police officers and police staff involved in the initial telephone contact with the caller and the subsequent decision-making process. Investigators reviewed recordings of the relevant Airwave transmissions together with information from police intelligence systems and the policies and procedures relating to the National Call Handling Standards and the WYP Demand Management policy: both relate to the handling and grading of calls to the police and the deployment of resources.

The investigation concluded there was no indication any police officer or member of police staff may have behaved in a manner that would justify the bringing of disciplinary proceedings or committed a criminal offence. All police officers and staff co-operated fully with this investigation.

After reviewing our report, WYP advised that they would be addressing an area of individual learning for one of the police officers, who closed the incident log without checking with their supervisor. The force will address this through management action in the form of words of advice from the officer’s line manager.