They aren’t still investigating in terms of why they were called.
The police force have referred themselves to the IOPC for investigation because they had recent contact with Nicola before she went missing. This is standard in a situation such as this.
The statement reads
‘No one has been arrested in relation to this incident, but it is being investigated.’
which I read differently to an external investigation into their involvement but rather an investigation into the incident itself. Perhaps it is poor wording but I am not entirely convinced because they do not know what happened to Nicola as of yet so I am unsure how their conduct can that be investigated because there is no known ‘harm’ as of yet, although obviously it can be implied.
my take on this investigation is that there was a team sent out, potentially to a suicide threat or similar. She was not involuntarily admitted that not, but has subsequently now disappeared and potentially come to harm, so this investigation would be a normal occurrence to see why she was not ‘sectioned’ that night. I don’t take from this that any crime was committed. I think the team will be questioned why they didn’t take her, as she was obviously more at risk than they thought that night. I take from it that potentially they talked her down and she agreed to go for voluntary treatment. All guesses of course.[/b]
the mental health services in the country are appalling.
Actually your comment ‘that night’ made me think a bit differently because we don’t know what time of the day the police attended (unless I have missed that!) I am unsure if reports of concern for welfare are treated as an emergency to warrant immediate police presence. I suppose it could be a third party who called the police - it was a school day. We don’t know what time of day the police attended, maybe she dropped the kids off at school in a state (I don’t mean drunk, anything really that you would classify as a person being in a state) or one of her kids mentioned something a teacher found urgent enough to implement their safe guarding procedures.
poor Nicola, I hope there is some resolution soon for her and her family.