The police watchdog has criticised a force after call handlers told a family raising mental health concerns to ring a locksmith. On 6 August 2025, Hobie Harrison's parents called Norfolk Police to request a welfare check after he failed to respond to them. He was found dead the next day.
The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) said the force's 101 call handlers should have referred the family to mental health services, but instead suggested they contacted a locksmith. Norfolk Police said it was reviewing the findings and it had been following the force's Right Care, Right Person (RCRP) policy, external, which limits officer attendance at welfare calls to cases involving "immediate risk to life". The IOPC said the call handlers should have asked more probing questions to assess Hobie's level of risk and there should have been a better explanation to his parents about why officers were not sent under its RCRP guidelines.
Hobie's parents, Mark and Roberta Harrison, made a second request for a welfare check for their son to Norfolk Police the following day. Officers attended and found the 30-year-old dead in his flat in Norwich. In October 2025, the family made a complaint to Norfolk Police over its handling of their call.
In its report, the IOPC criticised Norfolk Police's response to that complaint after the force told the parents officers should not have attended either call, including the second one that led to Hobie's body being found. The IOPC called that reply "unnecessary and insensitive". Hobie had previously threatened suicide and Mark said: "We'll never know whether he was still alive when we first called and whether something could have been done.
"He might already have been dead, but we'll never know." More stories on Right Care, Right Person: Senior officer defends new mental health approach Costessey deaths: Norfolk police must improve call handling Bedfordshire Police to focus on crime over mental health calls New mental health policy 'saves police officer time' In its findings, the IOPC said it was concerned Norfolk Police may not fully understand the risks of the policy. David Ford, the watchdog's director of oversight and casework, said: "We have raised our concerns with the force around its interpretation of RCRP and monitoring of the initiative. "As a result... the force has said it will undertake a review to examine whether there are any organisational learnings." Norfolk Police said it could not comment further because an inquest has yet to take place, which is due to happen in November.
Hobie had schizophrenia and developmental trauma and was under the care of the Norfolk and Suffolk Foundation Trust Community Mental Health Team. His parents said he had a history of drug use. The couple adopted Hobie as a child and said he had been in "good spirits" the last time they saw him before his death.
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