An MP has stood by his criticism of North Yorkshire Police after an officer filed a safeguarding report on a family following a report of a burglary at their farm.
The force this week defended the actions of the officer following criticism from Filey, Thirsk and Malton MP Kevin Hollinrake.
The MP wrote to the force after receiving a complaint from a constituent that a police officer was called to a report of an attempted burglary at an unnamed farm on November 17, last year.
But while at the home, police say the officer noticed a “strong odour” and that the home appeared unclean, with sticky and dirty surfaces and floors.
The officer decided to submit a public protection notice (PPN) following the visit due to children being in the house, an action which can trigger a multi-agency safeguarding response.
In response to the criticism from the MP, Catherine Clarke, Assistant Chief Constable for Local Policing & Safeguarding at North Yorkshire Police, said the officer “did the right thing” and that the incident was an example of “the safeguarding system working as intended”.
“The officer correctly identified and documented a possible concern, raising it for our specialist safeguarding team to review,” she added.
North Yorkshire Police said the PPN was not escalated to other agencies after being reviewed by its vulnerability assessment team.
But Mr Hollinrake said that a police inspector had visited the family and concluded that the action taken by the officer was not appropriate — and that the family would get an apology.
He added:
“An hour after that visit, there was a post on the North Yorkshire Police website saying basically they looked into it and the police officer, the original one, had acted appropriately and there was no case to answer and the case was closed.
“I don’t see how those two positions are compatible. I spoke to the superintendent today and they still maintain the police officer was in the right, despite the fact that the investigation they did not include a conversation with the family
“So they’ve come to a conclusion without asking the family’s side of the story, which is completely inappropriate.
“This is not about the particular police officer, it’s about the priorities that have been given to our police officers right across the county, making sure they are actually doing their day job catching criminals rather than making subjective judgements about the hygiene of a home where there was no real safeguarding concern.”
North Yorkshire Police declined to comment further on the issue.
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