Response to 999 calls - West Midlands Police, June 2017

Between 1 and 3 June 2017, a man made 999 calls to West Midlands Police (WMP) over 30 recorded times. On the majority of calls he said that he was in danger of violence from his neighbours and, on 3 June, WMP officers went to the man’s home in response. The police officers felt that he was not in danger of violence.

Later that same day, the man called WMP again and said that he was going to take an overdose and kill himself. WMP originally asked the ambulance service to attend. However, when contact could not be made with the man, police officers were deployed as an immediate response. When they arrived the man had taken an overdose and was unconscious. He was taken to hospital by ambulance and his condition was not thought to be life threatening.

Investigators obtained witness statements from attending police officers and paramedics who gained entry to the man’s home, and from police officers and police staff in the contact centre who were considered to have had a significant involvement with the incident. One member of police staff has since retired from the force and declined to provide a statement. We also obtained additional evidence from WMP, such as incident logs and call recordings.

We found no evidence to indicate that WMP contributed to the man’s serious injury. The evidence suggested that WMP had taken reasonable steps in order to assist the man when he threatened to take his own life by asking the ambulance service to attend: an agreement was in place at the time with the ambulance service that they would attend medical issues such as this one. The evidence also indicated that all necessary and reasonable steps were taken by police officers when they found the man.

During the investigation, we found no indication any police officer had behaved in a manner that would justify the bringing of disciplinary proceedings or had committed a criminal offence.

After reviewing our report WMP agreed with our views.