Response to missing person’s report - West Yorkshire Police, August 2016

On 5 August 2016, a man was reported missing to West Yorkshire Police. Officers conducted enquiries through the night and, on 6 August, they located him at his home in Bingley. Over the next three days, his brother and mental health professionals raised concerns about his welfare to West Yorkshire Police. A safe-and-well check was conducted by officers on 7 August. They confirmed he was alive and appeared to them to be well. Following further calls from mental health professionals, on 9 August 2016, officers forced entry into the man’s home and found him dead.

An inquest into the cause of the man’s death recorded a conclusion of suicide.

During the investigation, four police officers and one member of police staff were served with notices of investigation. They were subsequently interviewed, as were a number of witnesses, to establish what happened in the days prior to the man’s death.

The Investigator concluded that there was sufficient evidence upon which a reasonable tribunal could conclude that two police officers had a case to answer for misconduct for failing to review the incident log and therefore not considering all the information available when making decisions. The Investigator did not find a case to answer for the remaining police officers and member of police staff. However, the Investigator suggested that, based on the evidence available, the performance of the member of police staff may be considered unsatisfactory.

After reviewing our report, West Yorkshire Police agreed with our findings and held a misconduct meeting for the two officers, at which no case to answer was found for either officer. However, the force decided a development plan was appropriate to deal with the performance issue identified for the member of police staff and provided words of advice to one of the other police officers.