This was in my local paper as the case has gone on and is now on the local news (BBC Points West) Police Fail suicidal man,I have been following the reporting in the local paper (The swindon Advertiser) and have been totally appalled and disgraced by this.
Five members of custody staff from a police station in Swindon have been disciplined after a man killed himself shortly after leaving the station.
A report into the death of Michael Spencer, 39, found a number of failings into the care he received.
Mr Spencer had been arrested after allegedly hitting his wife in July 2006. After being bailed he was killed when he stepped in front of a lorry.
An inquest in Oxford recorded a verdict of suicide into his death.
'Failure in care'
The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) report led to an inspector and a sergeant being fined 13 days' pay, two sergeants nine days' pay and a civilian worker received a written warning.
A constable also received "words of advice".
Oxfordshire coroner Nicholas Gardiner found faults with the police work but said their actions did not ultimately cause his death.
The IPCC report found a number of failures with the care Mr Spencer received both while in custody and his release on bail.
The married father-of-two from Freshbrook, Swindon, was charged with common assault and bailed to attend court.
Mr Spencer was pronounced dead after he was hit by an lorry on the A420, near Shrivenham, 90 minutes later.
'Training recommended'
The IPCC report said Mr Spencer was "not well served" by Wiltshire Police while he was in custody.
It said: "There were clear indicators of risk in respect of self-harm and suicide, yet these issues were not acted upon appropriately.
"The custody staff also allowed him to leave custody without anywhere arranged for him to go, wearing only slippers and with no money.
"A number of recommendations into custody policy and practice and training were made to Wiltshire Police.
"They have accepted them all and have outlined actions taken to improve custody practices."
Life can be beautiful if you let it.
Step back, breathe and take it in
When I was sectioned by the police they wanted to let me go when I had no money and phone on me, only a t-shirt (and it was the middle of the night) and in a part of town I'd never been before so I'd have had no idea how to get home! I was lucky in that the mental health social worker that was there made sure I got a lift home, but given that experience it doesn't surprise me that they just let him go.
I read some more about it today, this case actually sickens me.
The guy commited a crime yet reported himself..so obviously he didn't 'mean' to do it! He had previously OD'ed-like weeks before this happened.. He had been self harming in the weeks previous to arrest.
He's brother in law (I think) had phoned the police WHILE he was in custody to alert them of his state of mind and had offfered to pick him up when he was realesed yet they failed to tell the guy in custody and although having all this info at there finger tips DIDN'T call in a mental health proffessional to assess him.= man dead! well done police!
The thing is we pay this people in our tax and yet they-especially our local police don't serve the public well.
The police are ment to look out for all members of the public, victims of crime but also offenders. It just really really annoyed me. Having falled victim to the police myself!
Thankfully they've now changed there system but, sadly a man lost his life and it could have been prevented!
Life can be beautiful if you let it.
Step back, breathe and take it in
Have been discharged from A&E with no shoes, no underwear, no top, no cash, and blood caked clothes before. Way to feel super-vulnerable.
Similar - had cash but no underwear or shoes. I think they should at least have made sure he had somewhere to go and was in a decent state.
I don't know about how police are trained - but if current reports are to be believed they're pretty under-resourced and under-funded and should really just be spending more time on the beat. I think there is a danger of expecting policemen to be all things to all men, and really vulnerable people need a social worker/duty psychiatrist/counsellor or something available, like there is at A&E. Not a policeman.
Well I went the hopsidal once they wouldnt let me leave without knowing were I was going. They wanted me to give them the telephone the adresss and drop me off. But Id taken and OD and didnt want my mum and dad to find out so in the end they rang my dad.
So in a way not all hopsidals are bad.
But I do agree the treating of this case is a dicrace.
Happiness can be found, even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light.
Ive been in the situation where the hospital wouldnt let me go by myself, i had to get someone to come and collect me, and ive also had them get me a taxi and them paying for it. So its not all bad.
It just really depends on alot of things, and sometimes they system isnt great, people miss all the signs. Hopefully they will learn something from it all.
"Its not how long a star shines, what is remembered is the brightness of the light"
are police trained in mental health at all? if not, they should be!
I've had many police be extremely insensitive toward me and mental illness and one flat out told me he 'didn't buy the whole mental health thing' and said I was just doing things for attention. I wanted to punch him in the face.
well I know I have brought an elderly man that I found wandering with no shoes to a police station (after I had located his family who said that they didn't have the transport to bring him home) and the desk officer yelled at me that they weren't babysitters. I thought I was bringing him somewhere safe- but in leaving I wasn't too sure.
~Happy tomatoes together we will be~
You say toe- may- toe, I say toe- mah- toe:
Let's call the whole thing- red
“It’s time to lead the third revolution, which is not to say we want to be at the top of the world, but to say we want to change the world. Because the way the world has been designed by men is not working. It’s not working for women, it’s not working for men,
it’s not working for polar bears.” Arianna Huffington 2014
This is disgraceful... they should receive training either in common sense or mental health. I don't understand how anybody would let someone leave in that state, also after A&E as well. If this is what tax payer's money is going towards... it's just ridiculous.
Seriously, I'm not a big fan of them. Did anyone expect anything more?
And he brought me into a vast farmlands of our own midwest. And as we descended, cries of impending doom rose from the soil. One thousand, nay a million voices full of fear. And terror possesed me then. And I begged, "Angel of the Lord, what are these tortured screams?" And the angel said unto me, "These are the cries of the carrots, the cries of the carrots! -- Not a vegetarian
