Jason Devoti
21 Jan 2020 · Coroner David Reid · Worcestershire
The coroner's concerns
1. unresolved P2 incident logs
“West Midlands Police had failed not only to deal this particular incident log, but also many other P2 incident logs which were open at the time, as they should have”
2. excessive outstanding P2 incident logs
“large number ( 150-200 ) of P2 incident logs would regularly be outstanding at the beginning of a shift”
3. lack of awareness or enforcement of escalation process
“dispatchers were not sufficiently aware of the process so as to be able to act in accordance with it;”
4. resource shortage in policing and control operations
“insufficient officers to deploy to incidents, but also because there were not enough staff in the control room to work through the logs;”
5. delayed P2 incident response
“risk that West Midlands Police will be unable to resource and attend a P2 incident within the 60 minute period”
Responses
2020-0017-Response-from-West-Midlands-Police_Redacted.pdf ↗· West Midlands Police
Stated action
“The coroner raises in principle two key matters for consideration. Firstly the actions taken to reduce the demand pressures placed on control room staff, recognised at the time of Mr. [name redacted] death. Secondly the training and support provided to staff to alleviate these demand pressures ensuring that incidents are dealt with effectively.”