Statement from Chief Constable following the publication of the Dawn Sturgess Inquiry report

A Statement has been issued by Wiltshire Police Chief Constable Catherine Roper following the publication of the Dawn Sturgess Inquiry report:

I would like to reaffirm that the collective condolences of everyone at Wiltshire Police remain with Dawn’s family and friends.

Since Dawn’s death on July 8 2018, they have had to wait for answers as to how this tragedy unfolded.

I cannot begin to imagine the pain of losing a daughter and not having a complete picture of how this happened.

It is also important for me to acknowledge that, in part, this pain was compounded by mistakes made by Wiltshire Police.

Dawn was wrongly described by Wiltshire Police as a known drug user – this was not correct and should never have happened. For this, I am truly sorry.

Concerns were also raised during the Inquiry with regards to how Wiltshire Police responded to the second Novichok incident. This included our officers’ interactions with other frontline responders.

From the outset of the Inquiry, we made it clear that Wiltshire Police was fully committed to learning any further lessons arising throughout this process. This is in addition to the learning already captured in a national review run by the College of Policing in 2020.

During each day of the hearings, our teams captured every opportunity to inform future learning or development to improve our policing service.

We identified 21 areas for improvement (grouped below) and these were tracked through our Force Organisational Learning Board chaired by Assistant Chief Constable Deb Smith.

These improvements included:

• Ensuring critical advice & guidance – such as Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear (CBRN) advice - is shared promptly and effectively with our frontline. We’ve developed an internal intelligence portal where this information is shared directly with our frontline colleagues. This is in addition to ongoing training for all operational commanders
• Enhanced multi-agency exercise training – we have an ongoing programme of training exercises and have seen an increase in the number of formal debrief sessions between agencies
• Recording of emergency services huddles on Body Worn Video (BWV) – when emergency services make urgent decisions at scenes of incidents, these are now recorded on BWV to ensure total transparency and consistency. This has been embedded as part of our wider BWV training. The views of other partner agencies must always be considered and respected.
• Ensuring only appropriate, objective and factual information is captured on police files and systems - this includes language used when capturing witness statements, handover processes, meeting notes and minutes. Formal advisory warnings regarding this can now be found on our systems.

In addition to these self-identified improvements, we fully accept all the recommendations made by the Inquiry Chair in today’s Inquiry report and I am committed to ensuring these will be implemented. The organisational learning we have already progressed will absorb these and we will ensure these are continuously reviewed.

The report clearly outlines national learning for policing and there will be a national process to absorb this. We will ensure the lessons we previously identified and those in today’s report will be included within this process.

Throughout the Inquiry, we listened to the testimonies of our partner agencies to identify ways of continuing to strengthen our local relationships and partnerships.

Evidence presented to the Inquiry illustrated the criticality of ensuring these relationships are constantly developed for us all to help best protect the public. As outlined in the improvements we’ve implemented, we’ve prioritised advancing these inter-emergency services relationships for the benefit of our communities, primarily through our Local Resilience Forum.

It is important for me to recognise the significant impacts the Novichok poisonings had on Sergei and Yulia Skripal, former Detective Sergeant Nick Bailey, Dawn’s partner Charlie Rowley and all of their loved ones.

Their lives have been irreversibly changed as a result of the poisonings and the Inquiry findings will have an impact upon them so my thoughts remain with them at this time.

These events also impacted many of our officers, staff and volunteers – both within Wiltshire Police and the hundreds of colleagues who supported us on mutual aid during the incidents.

I would once again like to thank every single person who stepped forward to support us, the ongoing Counter Terrorism Policing investigation and our affected communities.

Beyond the public service response, these events have had a significant impact on our communities in Salisbury and Amesbury.

Whilst they will not be defined by the malicious actions of those seeking to cause harm in Salisbury, they have had to acknowledge that this now forms part of their modern-day history.

From the initial incident in Salisbury, the world watched on as local communities supported one another and the emergency services deployed in their neighbourhoods for months at a time.

They have defined the true meaning of community spirit.

Through our dedicated Neighbourhood Policing Teams, we will continue to support them and offer them the very best possible service.

Finally, the Inquiry has provided a transparent scrutiny process of our actions to our communities. I would like to encourage anyone who would like to contribute ideas or shape how we can continue to develop our service, to consider joining one of our Independent Advisory Groups. You can find more information on these here.