Dorset Police is issuing a statement following the conclusion of the inquest into the death of Gaia Pope.
Assistant Chief Constable Rachel Farrell said: “Gaia was only 19 years old and had her whole life ahead of her when she tragically died. My thoughts, and those of everyone at Dorset Police, remain with her family and friends.
“Over the last four and a half years, we have been determined to examine our response when Gaia and her family asked for help. We have sought to identify and deliver the improvements that needed to be made. This work has been overseen by the most senior officers in our force.
“Following a lengthy inquest, in which evidence was heard from a range of public agencies and more than 30 officers and staff from Dorset Police, the jury have delivered their conclusions.
“The record of inquest reflects that there were failings on the part of Dorset Police in our response to Gaia’s disappearance, but that those failings did not cause or contribute to her death. We make a commitment today that we will act swiftly on any learning that has not already been part of our improvement programme.
“We recognise that as a force our immediate response to the missing person enquiry should have been better managed. This includes how we identified Gaia’s vulnerabilities, the missing risk she was graded at, how we oversaw coordination of searches and the running of an effective command structure.
“Gaia and her family did not receive the service they should have had after her disappearance. We should have done much better especially during those first 48 hours and for this we are truly sorry.
“Since Gaia’s death we have worked hard to ensure we have the right framework in place so we can respond promptly and effectively when someone is reported missing. Following an independent investigation by the Independent Office for Police Conduct we have delivered many changes to our ways of working and introduced dedicated missing persons teams to ensure our response meets national best practice and provides the right service for our communities.
“While there has been much learning for Dorset Police, we would still wish to recognise that a significant number of our officers, staff, volunteers and partners were involved in the search for Gaia and in the time she was missing, had continually hoped and worked for a very different outcome.
“We welcome the Prevention of Future Deaths report from the Coroner. It will help us to ensure we have understood and responded to every single piece of learning in this case. We will now take the proper time to reflect on and respond to the report.
“This inquest has been an important process for Gaia and her loved ones and I want to finish by sending our most sincere and heartfelt condolences to her family and friends.”
Please find below further detail on the work that has been carried out in Dorset Police since Gaia’s death.
- We have amended and updated our missing persons and concern for welfare policies, procedures and practices, and upgraded our crime recording system so pertinent information can be easily accessed.
- Missing person and vulnerability training has been rolled out to key decision makers, and everyone joining the Force receives initial missing person training.
- We have revised our deployment policy, as well as our joint operation policies and procedures with outside agencies who also help to search for missing people.
- We have commissioned the Missing People charity to carry out an in-depth whole system approach review to provide recommendations on how we can improve our response.
- We are awaiting the formal report relating to the post-inspection review.
- We have recruited a Missing Person Co-ordinator to support the delivery of improvements relating to the Force’s response to missing people. This includes working alongside partner agencies to reduce the harms associated with people going missing through prevention planning and targeted interventions with individuals.
- And in November 2021 we introduced dedicated two missing persons teams to cover both Local Policing Areas, with a third team expected to be operating from September 2022.
- These teams include police officers who are solely dedicated to placing scrutiny and structure around missing person investigations, while carrying out effective prevention work alongside partner agencies to reduce future harm and repeat missing episodes. The teams also proactively search for missing people, often finding them quickly and reducing the risks to those individuals.
- The sergeants and constables embedded in these teams have been trained in the nationally recognised role as Lost Person Search Managers and two Police Search Advisors support the teams.
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