Police response to safeguarding of children examined – West Midlands Police, June 2024

West Midlands Police received a report that a man was smashing car windows on a residential road. There had been a dispute between neighbours which had escalated.

Several officers responded to the incident. They arrived at the address and entered the man’s home, speaking to the man and his partner. Officers also found two young adults and five children at the address. One of the young adults was later identified as a vulnerable missing person from another force area.

During the visit, the man became aggressive and assaulted a police officer. The man and his partner were arrested – the man for assaulting the officer and criminal damage to the cars, and the woman for assaulting the neighbours. They were taken to custody, and the children were left in the care of the young adults.

One of the children who remained at the house disclosed to a family member that one of the young adults had touched her inappropriately.

We received a mandatory conduct referral from the force and decided to independently investigate the actions and decisions of all police officers at the address in connection with the safeguarding of the children.

We examined whether appropriate checks were made on the young adults left in charge, whether any action was taken to refer the children to relevant services, if any enquiries were made with the mother of the children to ensure their safeguarding, and whether the officers’ decisions and actions were in line with local and national policies and guidance.

Our investigators examined body worn video footage from the scene, and reviewed incident logs. We took statements from the officers involved, as well as witnesses and family members. We also considered policies and guidance, including the College of Policing’s national policy ‘Police response to concern for a child’.

We concluded there was no indication that a person serving with the police committed a criminal offence or behaved in a manner to justify disciplinary proceedings.

We did find that officers did not take appropriate action to identify the children at the house or the young adults who were left in charge of the children. It was the officers’ responsibility to make sure the children were safe. We recommended that five officers would benefit from the reflective practice review process (RPRP). This process allows officers to learn from and reflect on what could have been done better.

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.

We did not identify any organisational learning in this case.