Woman seriously injured after contact with police - Staffordshire Police, January 2018

In January 2018 a man stabbed and injured his ex-girlfriend. In the weeks leading up to the stabbing, Staffordshire Police had dealt with a number of incidents involving the man threatening to take his own life and self-harming, and trying to contact his ex-girlfriend to convince her to restart their relationship.

Staffordshire Police referred this matter to us as death or serious injury.

Our investigators obtained accounts from officers, interviewed a witness and reviewed the relevant policies and procedures. Five officers were subsequently served with a notice of investigation with regards to the application of procedures regarding the force’s stalking and harassment policy.

After reviewing the available evidence, we were of the opinion that two officers had a case to answer for misconduct: one for taking no further action after what appeared to be a further harassment incident, and the other for reviewing that decision and deciding no further investigation was required. We were also of the opinion that the performance of another officer had been unsatisfactory.

After reviewing our report, the force acknowledged that there had been a failing by Staffordshire Police and that more could have been done. Their view was that there was no real difference in performance in four of the officers involved in the harassment allegations, and that their actions did not constitute misconduct. They proposed to deal with this matter through management action, in the interest of reflective practice. They also advised that learning from this investigation would be used in the onward training of officers.

We agreed that their proposals were appropriate.