Legal Assistance - Free for Unison Members and VITAL for advice and support during IOPC investigations!

Post Incident Procedure (PIP) for Death and Serious Injury Following Police Contact.

There may be times (particularly when in public Facing Roles) that you are involved in a serious incident resulting in death or serious injury following police contact.

Should this be the case, your first priority is to inform the Post Incident Manager that you are a Unison Member. This will then ensure that contact is made with your Unison PIP representative.

Your PIP representatives are Ian Pointon and Kerry Stothart. Ian will also be your representative for IOPC investigations.

In the event that the Unison PIP representative is unavailable, you will need to call unison direct for legal assistance on:- 0808 164 9332

UNISON offers a 24-hour Police Post Incident Procedures (PIP) legal helpline for UNISON members of police staff in England and Wales who are involved in an incident where someone dies, may die, or is seriously injured following contact with the police.

To access this service you must have been a member of UNISON for at least four weeks before the incident happened.

Your first call: If you are involved in a post incident procedure (PIP) you should immediately call the helpline on 0808 164 9332 to get access to advice and support. The helpline is open 24 hours and is free to call (although some service providers may charge)

When to call: You should call the PIP legal helpline if you are a UNISON member of police staff and you are involved in an incident which is subject to post incident procedures. Police forces operate these procedures when, following contact with the police, someone dies (or is expected to die) or suffers injuries that are life changing or potentially life changing.

What else should you do: Contact your local PIP accredited UNISON representative as you will also need immediate assistance from the union. If you prefer, your PIP accredited rep can call the helpline on your behalf.

You should not discuss the case with anyone, or make any statements to anyone else, or hand over any personal items, before speaking to a legal representative via the PIP helpline and your UNISON representative has arrived.

These matters are extremely serious and any investigation will not necessarily consider your welfare needs or state of mind. UNISON is there to protect you.

The investigation: You will either be regarded as a suspect or witness (you can’t be both). UNISON will ensure that your rights under the Police and Criminal Evidence Act (PACE) are followed and will work with your force’s Post Incident Manager (PIM) to ensure that you are treated fairly and that your welfare needs are met.

So, make sure you contact UNISON by calling our PIP legal helpline for access to legal support. Also make sure you contact your PIP accredited local UNISON representative as soon as possible.