Police Watchdog Criticises Norfolk Force After Grieving Family Told to Call a Locksmith

A police watchdog has strongly criticised Norfolk Police after call handlers advised a worried family to contact a locksmith instead of sending officers to check on their son, who was later found dead.

The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) said the force's 101 call handlers should have referred Hobie Harrison's parents to mental health services when they raised concerns, but instead suggested they consider hiring a locksmith to gain entry to his flat.

The case centres on events in early August 2025, when Mark and Roberta Harrison became alarmed after their 30-year-old son failed to respond to them. Hobie, who lived in Norwich, had schizophrenia and developmental trauma, and was under the care of the Norfolk and Suffolk Foundation Trust Community Mental Health Team. He also had a history of drug use and had previously threatened suicide.

His parents said he normally contacted them several times a day, so when more than 24 hours passed without any word, they knew something was seriously wrong. They went to his flat but were unable to get inside because his key was still in the lock on the inside of the door.

"We were 100% certain he was in there and he wasn't responding, so we knew there was something seriously wrong," Mark Harrison said.

They called Norfolk Police on 6 August 2025 to request a welfare check, telling call handlers about their son's history of self-harm and suicidal threats. After consulting a supervisor, the staff member told them the situation did not meet the threshold for a police response and suggested they consider contacting a locksmith.

Roberta Harrison described the moment as bewildering. "We didn't know how to make a decision at that point or what to do quite frankly," she said. The couple said they were left unsure where to turn after being told their concerns for their son did not meet the threshold for a police response.

The family made a second request for a welfare check the following day. Officers attended and found Hobie dead in his flat. He had been found the day after the first call.

The IOPC's findings, published after an investigation, concluded that the call handlers should have asked more probing questions to assess the level of risk Hobie faced. The watchdog also said there should have been a better explanation given to his parents about why officers were not being sent under the force's Right Care, Right Person (RCRP) policy.

That policy, which Norfolk Police said it had been following, limits officer attendance at welfare calls to cases involving an "immediate risk to life". The approach is part of a wider national shift in policing, under which forces have stepped back from responding to certain mental health-related calls, with the expectation that health services take the lead instead. Supporters argue it frees up officer time and ensures people in crisis receive specialist care, but critics warn it can leave families feeling abandoned at the moment they most need help.

In October 2025, the Harrison family made a formal complaint to Norfolk Police about how their call had been handled. The IOPC was critical of the force's response to that complaint, after it told the parents that officers should not have attended either call — including the second one that led to Hobie's body being found. The watchdog described that reply as "unnecessary and insensitive".

David Ford, the IOPC's director of oversight and casework, said the investigation had raised broader worries about how the force is applying the policy. "We have raised our concerns with the force around its interpretation of RCRP and monitoring of the initiative," he said. "As a result... the force has said it will undertake a review to examine whether there are any organisational learnings."

The IOPC said it was concerned that Norfolk Police may not fully understand the risks associated with the policy. Norfolk Police said it was reviewing the findings and that it could not comment further because an inquest into Hobie's death has yet to take place, which is due to happen in November.

Mark Harrison spoke of the anguish of not knowing whether earlier action could have saved his son. "We'll never know whether he was still alive when we first called and whether something could have been done," he said. "He might already have been dead, but we'll never know."

The couple, who adopted Hobie as a child, remembered him as funny and mischievous. They said he loved music and enjoyed gardening, and that he had been in "good spirits" the last time they saw him before his death.

The case has added to existing scrutiny of the RCRP approach in the region. It follows previous reports, including one in May 2024 in which a senior officer defended the new mental health approach, and another in the same month that concluded police "must improve" call handling following deaths. Earlier coverage also noted that the policy was intended to save police officer time and allow forces to focus on crime over mental health calls.

For families in crisis, the case highlights a difficult practical question: what to do when a loved one is unresponsive behind a locked door and the police say the situation does not meet their threshold for attendance. The IOPC's findings suggest that, at the very least, call handlers should have explored the risk more thoroughly and directed the Harrisons towards mental health services rather than a locksmith.

The watchdog's conclusions also point to a gap in how the policy is monitored and understood at ground level, an issue that the force has now pledged to examine. With the inquest still to come, the full circumstances of Hobie's death have yet to be set out in a public hearing.

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