Skip to main content
Initial Planning Point - IPP Search smarter
← All articles

Debrief / case study

Alan Hirst: Prevention of Future Deaths report

Following a missing-person death during severe flooding, the coroner identified insufficient 24/7 Police Search Adviser coverage and limited training places. A search decision was not reviewed until the following day; the subject was then found within 20 minutes.

Published on IPP by Kris Manning

Issuing body: HM Senior Coroner for Herefordshire
Report date: 20 July 2026; published 16 September 2026
Original: Courts and Tribunals Judiciary
Evidence: Practice insight — official legal finding

Operational importance: The initial decision not to search floodwater was made with incomplete information and significant environmental risk. When the adviser went off duty, no equivalent specialist coverage was available. The report highlights the need for:

  • Formal review points for deferred or high-consequence areas.

  • Recorded rationale, assumptions and information gaps.

  • Explicit ownership of decisions awaiting reassessment.

  • Specialist handover or escalation arrangements.

  • Resilience when specialist advisers are unavailable.

The coroner’s concern concerned national PolSA coverage and access to training places, not merely one individual decision.

Transferability: Directly relevant to missing-person search organisations. The broader lesson applies anywhere specialist advice or particular terrain is unavailable across an operational period.

Limitations: This is one incident and not comparative research. The coroner found that Alan was probably deceased before being reported missing; the report therefore does not establish that an earlier search or different review process would have saved him. It identifies a future systemic risk rather than proving causation in this death.

Training sections: Planning decisions and contingencies; deferred areas; reassessment and replanning; handover; specialist advice; decision logging; extended operations.

Training decision — Amend: Every decision to defer a potentially important area should record its review trigger, responsible role and latest review time.

Sources