Lincolnshire Police officers have been cleared of misconduct after a woman died of an overdose hours after they left her.
The 44-year-old woman died after taking medication while in a Skegness caravan park in July 2022.
Sergeant Connor Ingamells and PC Paige Thompson were called to the scene on July 21.
Officers trusted EMAS’s assessment that the situation wasn’t life-threatening – but a misconduct hearing on Monday (December 16) found it was “wrong and inadequate”.
They were both cleared of allegations that they breached police standards for discreditable conduct and carrying out their duties, with PC Thompson also cleared of failing to challenge improper conduct.
A friend of the woman, who cannot be named, rang East Midlands Ambulance Service (EMAS) in the early hours to say he believed she had taken large quantities of his medication.
Police spent half an hour at the scene on Winthorpe Way and left her in the care of a different friend.
Medical experts told the hearing there was nothing at the time to suggest she was about to collapse, and it was impossible to know when she had taken the fatal dose of medication.
A neighbour claimed they saw her taking further pills after police had left the scene.
The woman called 999 twice more that night as her condition deteriorated and was told an ambulance would be there within eight hours.
Her condition was never graded the most serious life-threatening “Category 1” by EMAS.
She was found unresponsive on the caravan steps the next morning and was pronounced dead shortly after.
In the woman’s final call, she told a paramedic: “I think I’m going to die. Will someone come and help me please? I’m going to die, I know I am.”
The force was told to bring the misconduct charges by the Independent Office for Police Conduct watchdog.
Oliver Thorne, who chaired the misconduct panel, concluded that officers safeguarded the woman as best they could.
“Nothing should have alerted them that EMAS’s assessment was wrong or inadequate. Therefore, there was no breach of standards,” he said.
“It’s not sufficient to look with hindsight and say they should have acted differently.”
On bodycam footage of the incident, the woman says she is suicidal but gives different stories of how much medication she had taken.
The officers said on the video they didn’t believe she was in immediate danger, and asked her friend to watch over her.
PC Thompson can be heard saying: “You know where we are if you need anything. Call us – I mean that.”
Hugh Davis, representing Sgt Ingamells, said it was “extraordinary and wrong” for the allegations of gross misconduct to be made.
“The decision-making has been led by looking backwards from the tragic outcome, not forwards from the reality of a demanding shift.”
Both police and ambulance services were described as “acutely stressed” that night.
He added that police were discouraged from taking people to hospital themselves, and officers could have waited up to eight hours for an ambulance if they’d remained at the scene.
Matthew Butts, representing PC Thompson, said the situation was a medical emergency, not a police one.
“It’s wrong for other emergency services to assume the police will do [other services’] duties,” he said.
EMAS has been contacted for comment.