Deaths during or following police contact
The IOPC has published these figures every year since 2004/05. 3,666 deaths are recorded across the period, in five categories. This page reproduces that record by force.
What this page is, and is not. These are counts
published by the Independent Office for Police Conduct. A death recorded here has
not, by that fact, been found to be anyone's fault: the categories cover any death
during or following contact with the police, including road traffic incidents and
deaths after contact had ended. A force appearing higher in this table may simply be
larger or busier. Nothing here is a ranking, and nothing here is an allegation
against any officer or force.
The national picture
By category
| Category | Deaths, 2004/05 to 2024/25 |
|---|---|
| Deaths following other police contact | 1,462 |
| Apparent suicides following custody | 1,149 |
| Road traffic incidents | 612 |
| Deaths in or following custody | 399 |
| Fatal police shootings | 44 |
| All categories | 3,666 |
By force
Territorial forces only. The published tables also record incidents involving more than one force and deaths involving non-territorial bodies such as the Ministry of Defence Police and the National Crime Agency; those are included in the national total above but cannot be attributed to a single force, so they are not listed here. That accounts for 50 of the total.
| Police force | Road traffic | Custody | Apparent suicide | Shootings | Other contact | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Metropolitan | 93 | 61 | 85 | 16 | 156 | 411 |
| Greater Manchester | 59 | 26 | 37 | 2 | 124 | 248 |
| West Midlands | 39 | 14 | 48 | 2 | 99 | 202 |
| West Yorkshire | 53 | 15 | 50 | 2 | 69 | 189 |
| Devon & Cornwall | 10 | 15 | 49 | 1 | 52 | 127 |
| Sussex | 20 | 7 | 48 | 2 | 40 | 117 |
| South Wales | 15 | 14 | 32 | 0 | 51 | 112 |
| Northumbria | 14 | 17 | 44 | 2 | 30 | 107 |
| Thames Valley | 19 | 12 | 38 | 1 | 36 | 106 |
| Lancashire | 18 | 10 | 38 | 0 | 36 | 102 |
| Kent | 16 | 11 | 34 | 3 | 36 | 100 |
| Hampshire | 8 | 9 | 42 | 0 | 33 | 92 |
| Avon & Somerset | 13 | 10 | 26 | 1 | 41 | 91 |
| Merseyside | 18 | 14 | 18 | 0 | 41 | 91 |
| South Yorkshire | 19 | 9 | 30 | 0 | 32 | 90 |
| Staffordshire | 9 | 9 | 34 | 1 | 37 | 90 |
| Essex | 9 | 13 | 18 | 0 | 39 | 79 |
| West Mercia | 16 | 4 | 36 | 1 | 21 | 78 |
| Cheshire | 10 | 15 | 17 | 0 | 19 | 61 |
| Derbyshire | 10 | 12 | 15 | 1 | 23 | 61 |
| Humberside | 13 | 2 | 19 | 2 | 23 | 59 |
| Northamptonshire | 4 | 1 | 21 | 0 | 33 | 59 |
| Nottinghamshire | 12 | 8 | 19 | 0 | 20 | 59 |
| Surrey | 7 | 5 | 26 | 2 | 17 | 57 |
| Leicestershire | 9 | 3 | 16 | 0 | 28 | 56 |
| Hertfordshire | 11 | 4 | 18 | 0 | 20 | 53 |
| Lincolnshire | 6 | 8 | 18 | 0 | 21 | 53 |
| North Yorkshire | 3 | 4 | 25 | 0 | 19 | 51 |
| Cleveland | 5 | 7 | 21 | 0 | 14 | 47 |
| Norfolk | 8 | 7 | 13 | 0 | 19 | 47 |
| Suffolk | 2 | 8 | 20 | 0 | 17 | 47 |
| Gwent | 6 | 6 | 14 | 0 | 20 | 46 |
| North Wales | 3 | 8 | 18 | 0 | 17 | 46 |
| Dorset | 9 | 2 | 13 | 0 | 21 | 45 |
| Durham | 5 | 2 | 17 | 1 | 19 | 44 |
| Wiltshire | 3 | 1 | 15 | 1 | 22 | 42 |
| Bedfordshire | 7 | 3 | 17 | 1 | 13 | 41 |
| Warwickshire | 10 | 6 | 13 | 0 | 12 | 41 |
| Dyfed-Powys | 6 | 5 | 19 | 0 | 10 | 40 |
| Cambridgeshire | 4 | 4 | 15 | 1 | 14 | 38 |
| Cumbria | 6 | 1 | 22 | 1 | 8 | 38 |
| Gloucestershire | 3 | 2 | 13 | 0 | 19 | 37 |
| British Transport Police | 1 | 1 | 8 | 0 | 3 | 13 |
| City of London | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
Source. Independent Office for Police Conduct,
annual deaths during or following police contact, time series tables, 2004/05 to 2024/25,
England and Wales. Figures are reproduced as published. Categories are the IOPC's own.
Where a year shows no entry for a force, the published table recorded none.
Data last refreshed , covering 2004/05 to 2024/25. Every figure on this page is recomputed from the source datasets, not edited by hand. Found something wrong? Tell us.