A tragic case - And poor level of police service.

[Gromit]

// Police missed a desperate, screaming 999 call from a teenage girl while she and her family where being murdered in their home, a report revealed yesterday.

'Force procedure dictates that screaming on an abandoned 999 call should elicit an immediate police response.
'Had police used more detailed checks and a mapping system available to them, the need for a subscriber check would have been established; the correct address in Pioneer Close would have been identified and in all likelihood attended by officers within minutes.

But their bodies weren't discovered until two days later. //

An IPCC report found

// - The location from which the 999 call was made was incorrectly identified and disseminated by a police call handler, which led to the police focusing on the wrong address

- Insufficient checks were carried out to determine the correct address of the caller

- The call should have been graded as requiring an ‘immediate’ rather than a ‘priority’ police response

- The call was prematurely closed by a force control room supervisor without sufficient consideration or effort given to establish the welfare of the caller. //

So what happens next? - Nothing.
The IPCC report concludes:

// the range of measures which Northamptonshire Police have already implemented means that no further changes are required. //

http://www.dailymail....d-Chinese-family.html

Somehow, I find the, 'ah well, we've learned our lesson' conclusion a bit inadequate. If I knew this family, I would feel badly let down.

[youngmafbog]

It would be interesting to know how many 'easy picking' eg motorists were being booked at the time of this incident.

The Old Bill have alientated themselves from the majority of the public and this sort of thing only serves to further do so.

[Dodger666]

Our "emergency services" ceased being such years ago.

[squarebear]

True Gromit it is a sad event but as the police have now put new measures in place, I don't see what else can be done.

'Had police used more detailed checks and a mapping system available to them, the need for a subscriber check would have been established'.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing.

[Gromit]

On the whole, the Police do a good job often in very difficult circumstances. Cases like this are extremely rare, but when they do happen the public need to be reassured. Reading the IPCC conclusion, I don't think the public can be reassured. It was at best incompetence which possibly led a multiple murder make good his escape.

[anotheoldgit]

/// 'Northamptonshire Police has written to the immediate next of kin of the Ding family to apologise for the way the call was handled. This includes an invitation to receive this apology in person.///

This kind of response always surprises me, we are not talking about accidentally stepping on someone's foot here, persons have been killed, possibly all down to mistakes.

/// The IPCC investigation found that the force control room supervisor has a case to answer for misconduct. ///

Gromit's 'pet newspaper' failed to print the whole story, what relevant punishment has been metered out on this supervisor?

[Gromit]

AOG

I assume no relevant punishment has been metered out on this supervisor or they would have mentioned it. Which is why I posted about it. Lessons learned blah blah blah.

[ummmm]

Northampton police, in my experience, are good..

My son phoned 999 and I had 3 police cars at the house within minutes.

[grasscarp]

And the perpetrator is still out there

[Ellipsis]

This was a horrific case, very moving. Just to take the girl Xing who made the 999 call:

"[Xing Ding] has now been awarded four posthumous A* grades in Chemistry, Classic Latin, Mathematics and Biology, after the exams boards used her existing work to predict the grades she would have achieved." - http://www.northampto...efore_exams_1_3072628

"Xing ... who had been offered a place at university in Nottingham to study medicine this year ... had been due to compete at the Rotary Club’s national speaking final on Sunday, the same day her body was tragically found by police at her home in Simpson Manor, Northampton, with multiple stab wounds." - http://www.northampto...northampton_1_2645773

I don't think anybody from Northamptonshire Police could be punished any more severely than they already have been for what happened. The only comfort they can take is that it's extremely unlikely they could have stopped the crime taking place, since it WAS taking place at the time of the call - but what a fiasco afterwards ...

[naomi24]

Lessons have been learnt? How many times do we hear that? They never are.

[anotheoldgit]

ummmm

/// My son phoned 999 and I had 3 police cars at the house within minutes. ///

Was this in regard to a firearm or racial incident?

They are known to act immediately if either of these are mentioned.