Lack of GMP resources ‘must be of concern’

A lack of resources should be a cause for concern for the chief constable of Greater Manchester Police (GMP) the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) has warned, following an investigation into police contact with a woman prior to the death of her children.

The report published last week found no failings warranting misconduct action, but errors around call handling and a lack of available resources were identified as areas to be addressed by the force.

Jael Mullings pleaded guilty to manslaughter with diminished responsibility in April 2009, for the deaths of her two children, two-year-old Romario Mullings-Sewell and four-month-old Delayno Mullings-Sewell, whose bodies were found at her home on November 12, 2008.

The IPCC investigation looked into GMP’s response to telephone calls from a medical centre which advised about concerns for Ms Mullings’ behaviour and the welfare of her two children.

IPCC Commissioner Ms Naseem Malik said that some good examples of police work were found and that the errors identified could not be seen as causal factors for the children’s deaths.

She added: “Although our investigation has found some basic errors in call handling, the main issue was the lack of resources at the disposal of the radio operators.

“Resourcing is classed as a direction and control matter and, as such, is not a subject under the investigative remit of the IPCC. But I feel duty bound to comment on the evidence seen in this investigation and the comments made by officers and staff. This was a situation where staff were put in a nearly impossible position where they could not resource incidents. That must be of concern to the chief constable.

“A call was made at 1.17pm expressing serious concern for a woman and her children – yet the first police officers did not arrive on the scene for 90 minutes. Given the grading of the call, that is 30 minutes outside the police target. But even if the call had been given a priority grading, requiring a response in ten minutes, it would appear the radio operators would still have struggled to resource the incident in a timely manner.

“I fully appreciate police resources are stretched and will be stretched further in the current economic climate, but when the public make emergency calls they have the right to expect an appropriate and timely response.”