IOPC learning recommendation – call handling - IX/1932/20

Title: IOPC learning recommendation made under paragraph 28A of schedule 3 to the Police Reform Act 2002.
Our reference: IX/1932/20
Author: Prevention and Learning Team, Directorate of Professional Standards

Learning recommendation – call handling

In March 2020, a woman called police because she was worried about her brother. She explained that he suffered from depression and that she had not been able to contact him for two days. The call was graded as ‘significant’ and officers attended. They conducted basic checks but decided not to force entry due to the time of night. There was an intention to return the next day. Despite the call remaining logged by the control room, redeployment to the address did not take place until three days later when officers discovered the man dead. The evidence suggests that he had taken his own life prior to the police receiving the call.

Recommendation

The IOPC recommends that the Metropolitan Police Service formally reviews their internal processes to provide for appropriate monitoring of outstanding calls and that sufficient controls are in place to ensure that policies and procedures are followed, and then takes any necessary action identified as a result of the review. We also recommend that as part of the new command and control system, the Metropolitan Police Service considers whether it would be feasible to set up automated prompts for the Control Room that would support them in monitoring the outstanding calls.

The IOPC was concerned to note, that over a period of three days, the Control Room appeared to be encountering difficulties meeting the demand of incoming calls. This may have led to a number of outstanding calls not being reviewed and officers not being deployed to priority calls. We were also concerned that this position was not escalated to senior personnel in line with policy.

MPS response

The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) has reviewed and accepts the learning recommendation provided by the IOPC and intends to take the following action.
The MPS Command and Control (Met CC) will review its current processes for the monitoring of outstanding calls to ensure appropriate governance and scrutiny is in place.

These following actions will be carried out:

• Conduct a review of MPS Met CC Daily Management Meetings (held at 09.00am and 10.00pm) to ensure the appropriate scrutiny of outstanding calls is in place.
• Conduct a review of the roles and responsibilities of Met CC Duty Officers and Controllers by 30 April 2021 to ensure there is clarity around outstanding calls and what the processes are for escalation in such circumstances.
• To engage with all MPS Basic Command Units’ (BCUs) Operation Rooms by 30 April 2021 to ensure Met CC controllers have the capability to escalate issues when necessary.
• The Met CC Senior Leadership Team (SLT) will engage with South East BCU SLT to feedback any concerns around demand & resources within their command by 31 March 2021.

In January 2021 the Met CC Change Manager requested that the new Command and Control Project considers configuration to include automated prompts to enhance monitoring of outstanding calls.

Currently many Emergency Departments are unaware of the guidelines and the earlier 2014 version. However, if we were to refer them to these guidelines, they would find the anomalies mentioned above.

Whilst the aim of the recommendation is clearly to protect our detainees, implementation is difficult as the document is contradictory and patients are able to refuse treatment. Our Healthcare Director is aware that some Police Forces retain the detainee in the van on the hospital grounds for the observation period, so that they have fast access to hospital treatment if needed. Some hospitals have used the Mental Capacity Act having assessed that the patient refusing treatment does not have the capacity to refuse. However, this assessment would be made on an individual basis.

With regard to the last part of the recommendation that a person suspected of swallowing drug packages should be observed in hospital for a minimum eight hour period, even if the patient refuses treatment, it is almost impossible to enforce this.

Whilst we can accept the recommendation that requires us to refer the hospital emergency departments to the RCEM guidance on the Management of Suspected Internal Drug Traffickers (2020), the document does not clearly support detainees being observed in hospital for a minimum of 8 hours. It is likely that the MPS will therefore be required to observe and care for detainees in Custody who potentially could die without immediate hospital treatment.

Recommended next steps:

A learning conference call is set up between the IOPC, Met Detention Healthcare Director and OCU Commander in order to progress this recommendation satisfactorily.