Woman dies following calls to the police - South Yorkshire Police, November 2017

At 7.19pm on 3 November 2017, a member of the public telephoned South Yorkshire Police (SYP) and reported a disturbance at a neighbouring flat involving the male and female occupant. The call handler graded the incident as a ‘priority’, meaning police officers should have visited the flat within one hour. However, no officers were available to attend at that time or over subsequent days. At 12.22pm on 6 November, a SYP officer visited the flat and left a calling card requesting one of its occupants contact SYP. Later that day, the male occupant telephoned SYP and explained that, on 3 November, his partner had taken an overdose of medication and was in a critical condition in hospital. On 1 December, his partner died as a result of the overdose she had taken on 3 November.

Our investigators reviewed the telephone calls and the incident log and spoke to the control room supervisors. We also reviewed the relevant local and national policies, procedures and guidance.

Our investigation found that the SYP response to the incident was adversely affected by the lack of officers available to respond within the prescribed time. Our 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 police staff co-operated fully with this investigation.

An inquest into the woman’s death was held in November 2018. The coroner concluded that it was a drug-related death. The coroner was not satisfied, on the balance of probabilities, that she intended to take her life, but was satisfied that there was no third party involvement.