Police contact with woman before her death – Suffolk Constabulary, January 2020
Recommendation date: 11 July 2022
Response due: 5 September 2022
Published: 14 October 2022
Death and serious injury
Domestic abuse
Welfare and vulnerable people
On 16 January 2020 at 10.32pm, police attended a woman’s address following a distressed call from her housemate. On arrival, police officers found the woman unresponsive with serious injuries after being stabbed multiple times by her ex-partner. An ambulance arrived but the woman was pronounced dead at the scene. The police arrested the ex-partner, and he was subsequently found guilty of murder. Police records showed that the woman contacted Suffolk and Cambridgeshire Constabulary to report domestic incidents involving her ex-partner on three occasions in the weeks preceding her death. These incidents included allegations that she had been assaulted by the ex-partner and he was abusive towards her and made threats against her. Suffolk Constabulary made a mandatory referral and we launched an investigation to examine the response from Suffolk Constabulary and Cambridgeshire Constabulary to all reported incidents involving the woman and her ex-partner. Specifically, we investigated whether appropriate risk assessments …
Recommendations (6)
Recommendation 1
Accepted
Recommendation
The IOPC recommends that Suffolk Constabulary review the process for allocating cases from sergeant work trays and develop appropriate policy and/or standard operating procedure (SOP). This should include targets for case allocation (i.e., within that shift, within 48 hours etc.), … Read more
Force Response
Accepted action: The crime allocation policy has been reviewed. It was noted that whilst the crime allocation policy and systems in place are clear around allocation of investigations from IMU to Sgts Work trays, the requirements around allocation from Sgts … Read more
Recommendation 2
Accepted
Recommendation
The IOPC recommends that Suffolk Constabulary amend force training and guidance on the DASH risk assessment to highlight the importance of probing Q27 of the DASH: “Do you know if (Name of Abuser(s)) has ever been in trouble with the … Read more
Force Response
Accepted action: The Constabulary has an ongoing project to implement DARA (domestic abuse risk assessment) as a new replacement risk assessment for the current DASH (domestic abuse stalking harassment) system; the aim is for this to be introduced by the … Read more
Recommendation 3
Accepted
Recommendation
The IOPC recommends that Suffolk Constabulary takes steps to ensure that response and domestic abuse officers consider a victim’s previous DV history when assessing risk, even if the previous reported domestic abuse was with a different partner and not recent. … Read more
Force Response
Accepted action: The Constabulary has an ongoing project to implement DARA (domestic abuse risk assessment) as a new replacement risk assessment for the current DASH (domestic abuse stalking harassment) system; the aim if for this to be introduced by the … Read more
Recommendation 4
Accepted
Recommendation
The IOPC recommends that Suffolk Constabulary reviews its approach to the support provided to student officers under performance review. There should be a more rigorous approach to the supervision and guidance given on any cases they are leading whilst they … Read more
Force Response
Accepted action: The probationer development unit (PDU) has developed the attached document to utilise as a documented handover of responsibilities and expectations for the supervisors who receive student officers from other teams, whether the student is subject to a performance … Read more
Recommendation 5
Accepted
Recommendation
The IOPC recommends that Suffolk Constabulary reviews current practice around 'Protect a Vulnerable Person' (PVP) referrals and updates the welfare/mental health policies and procedures as appropriate. Current practice and policies provide conflicting advice. The force should consider issuing communications to … Read more
Force Response
Accepted action: The Constabulary will be making additions to existing policies to overcome any ambiguities around required responses from officers – the proposed additions are as underlined below and will take a number of weeks to process due to the … Read more
Recommendation 6
Accepted
Recommendation
The IOPC recommends that Suffolk Constabulary review its approach to concern for welfare reports where there is also an element of domestic abuse. In cases where a concern for welfare report is received regarding a known DV perpetrator or victim, … Read more
Force Response
Accepted action: The Constabulary will be making additions to existing policies to overcome any ambiguities around required responses from officers – the proposed additions are as underlined below and will take a number of weeks to process due to the … Read more