IOPC criticises Norfolk Police for locksmith advice — SkimNews
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- The IOPC criticised Norfolk Police after 101 call handlers told Hobie Harrison's parents to "consider contacting a locksmith" when they called for a welfare check on 6 August 2025
- Hobie Harrison, 30, who had schizophrenia, developmental trauma and a history of self-harm, was found dead in his Norwich flat the day after officers attended a second welfare check request
- The watchdog said call handlers should have asked more probing questions to assess risk and should have referred the family to mental health services under the Right Care, Right Person (RCRP) policy
- Norfolk Police's complaint response, which told Harrison's parents that officers should not have attended either call—including the second one that led to their son's body being found—was branded "unnecessary and insensitive" by the IOPC
- Norfolk Police said the RCRP policy it introduced in 2024 cut officer attendance at welfare incidents from 11,831 in the year before adoption to 9,229 by its second year
- Coroners have flagged RCRP gaps in Prevention of Future Deaths reports into the deaths of Sophie Cotton in County Durham, Paul Alexander in West Yorkshire, and Andrew Hughes in Manchester
- Norfolk Police said it would undertake a review of the IOPC findings; an inquest into Harrison's death is scheduled for November
Why it matters: Norfolk Police's own complaint reply told Harrison's parents that officers should not have attended even the second call—the one that found their son's body—prompting the IOPC to call it "unnecessary and insensitive." The watchdog also flagged that 101 handlers should have escalated to mental health services under RCRP rather than redirecting the family to a locksmith, sharpening the accountability questions ahead of November's inquest and the coroners' parallel concerns about the national RCRP framework.
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