Recurring concern

Failure to reliably identify and investigate violent crimes

First to latest report 7 Aug 2015 — 30 Jun 2016

Reports that mention this concern
2
Times this concern has been raised
2
Stated actions linked to this concern
0

What this concern includes

Includes failures in police processes specifically concerned with recognising, categorising, assigning or investigating crimes of violence, including failure to identify violent allegations for appropriate handling and failures that leave violent crimes undetected.

What is not included
  • Excludes generic police investigative evidence-gathering failures where the crime is not violent or the violence-specific identification and investigation concern is not asserted.
  • Excludes domestic-abuse, sexual-offence or child-protection investigation pathways when those named pathways provide the more specific supported boundary.
  • Excludes generic incident categorisation or call-handling deficiencies that are not connected to allegations or investigations of violence.
  • Excludes the underlying occurrence or severity of violent crime when no deficiency in its identification, categorisation or investigation is identified.

Reports and published responses 2 reports

See individual reports that have raised this concern, and the actions taken in response

  1. Warwickshire

    AI-generated summary

    Luisa Mendes · Prevention of Future Deaths report

    This summary was generated using AI from the published report. Please read the original report for the complete account.

    Report summary

    Luisa Mendes was pronounced deceased on 25 October 2012 after a catastrophic abdominal bleed caused by rupture of the spleen, following the deliberate application of force by a third party. The report raised concerns about incident categorisation, handover procedures between control-room staff, and the STORM computer system's handling of unauthorised deferrals. The inquest also identified errors or omissions involving the police response, handover process, deferral of the response, computer-screen configuration, and supervision of the control room.

    Read the report on judiciary.uk

    Source evidence

    How this individual concern was interpreted

    PFD Monitor created a concise, searchable interpretation from the report wording shown below.

    PFD Monitor interpretation

    Failure to categorise incidents involving allegations of violence as violent

    Wider context from the report

    “(1) The approach of controllers and call handlers to the categorisation of incidents which include allegations of violence. The basis for the concern is that the incident should have been categorised as “violent” but it was not. ”

    Source location

    Luisa Mendes · Prevention of Future Deaths report
    Page 2 · concerns

    Open source report

    Source evidence

    How this respondent position was interpreted

    PFD Monitor created a concise, searchable interpretation from the published response wording shown below.

    PFD Monitor interpretation

    Incident categorisation need not determine response; controllers should focus instead on threat, harm, risk and vulnerability.

    Verbatim wording from the response

    “1. The approach of controllers and call handlers to the categorisation of incidents which include allegations of violence. The basis for the concern is that the incident should have been categorised as ‘violent’ but it was not.”

    Source location

    2016-0243-Response-by-Warwickshire-Police
    Page 2 · response
    Published 30 June 2016

    Open published response

  2. Manchester South

    AI-generated summary

    Ronald Arthur Laidlar · Prevention of Future Deaths report

    This summary was generated using AI from the published report. Please read the original report for the complete account.

    Report summary

    Ronald Arthur Laidlar was discovered deceased in the driveway of his house, naked from the waist down and with a considerable amount of blood around his head. The report raised concerns about missing personal property, inadequate searches and scene investigation, failure to test blood evidence or take fingerprints, and insufficient consideration of possible third-party involvement.

    Read the report on judiciary.uk

    Source evidence

    How this individual concern was interpreted

    PFD Monitor created a concise, searchable interpretation from the report wording shown below.

    PFD Monitor interpretation

    High likelihood of violent crimes remaining undetected

    Wider context from the report

    “8. If the level of investigation is as poor generally as it was in this case, then the possibility of crimes of violence remaining undetected remains high and therefore the chances of future deaths occurring is increased. ”

    Source location

    Ronald Arthur Laidlar · Prevention of Future Deaths report
    Page 1 · concerns

    Open source report

Actions and positions describe what organisations say in published responses. Implementation is not independently verified.

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Data last updated 7 September 2026