Karen Burns
12 Aug 2019 · Coroner Louise Hunt · Birmingham and Solihull
A similar concern from this report was raised again 1 time later. See the linked reports.
The coroner's concerns
1. insufficient police resources to respond to critical calls
“I heard evidence at the inquest that this call was graded incorrectly. It should have been graded as a P2 call with a response time within 60minutes. I also heard evidence to confirm that the large number of P1 calls that evening meant that even if the call had been correctly graded it would not have been answered as all available resources were required for the P1 calls (15 minutes response). The evidence confirmed that nearly all the P2 and P3 calls went unanswered that night. This raises a serious”
Linked reports
Closely relatedConfidence 0.90 · high
This report
“I heard evidence at the inquest that this call was graded incorrectly. It should have been graded as a P2 call with a response time within 60minutes. I also heard evidence to confirm that the large number of P1 calls that evening meant that even if the call had been correctly graded it would not have been answered as all available resources were required for the P1 calls (15 minutes response).”
Later report
“West Midlands Police had insufficient resources to allocate police officers to deal with [the deceased]'s case on 06/01/25 which was classed as a priority case with expected allocation of resources within an hour.”
Responses
2019-0273-Response-by-Home-Office.pdf ↗· Home Office
Stated action
“| will ask Home Office officials to contact West Midlands Police to identify if any remedial or additional measures need to be put in place to ensure calls are handled appropriately”
2019-0273-Response-by-West-MIdlands-Police-and-Crime-Commissioner.pdf ↗· West Midlands Police
2019-0273-Response-by-West-MIdlands-Police.pdf ↗· West Midlands Police