POPS incidents
Public order public safety — Authorised Professional Practice
Summary
The POPS incidents page outlines essential guidance for police forces regarding procedures following incidents resulting in death or serious injury, and critical incident management. It emphasizes that in cases of serious outcomes from police contact, post-incident protocols must be adhered to, particularly by Gold command officers. Furthermore, it defines critical incidents as situations where police responses significantly affect public confidence, necessitating careful planning by POPS commanders and advisers to manage such situations effectively. Specific APP guidance is provided for both post-incident procedures and critical incident management.
Key principles
- 1Forces must follow established post-incident procedures if a death or serious injury occurs after police contact.
- 2Gold POPS commanders are responsible for ensuring these procedures are implemented.
- 3Critical incidents are incidents affecting public confidence and require special planning and management.
- 4Both external and internal incidents can qualify as critical incidents.
- 5Specific guidance exists for managing critical incidents.
Defined terms
- critical incident
- any incident where the effectiveness of the police response is likely to have a significant impact on the confidence of the victim, their family and/or the community.
Full guidance
This page is from APP, the official source of professional practice for policing.
In the event that a member of the public dies or receives serious injury following police contact during an event or operation, forces should follow the guidance given in the Post-incident procedures following death or serious injury APP .
Gold public order public safety (POPS) commanders should also ensure that the relevant post-incident procedures are implemented and followed in such incidents.
POPS commanders, public order public safety advisers (POPSAs) and POPS planners should plan for a POPS events or operation to develop into a critical incident.
A critical incident is defined as ‘any incident where the effectiveness of the police response is likely to have a significant impact on the confidence of the victim, their family and/or the community’.
Critical incidents can be both external (public facing) and internal (confined to a police force and its staff).
Specific guidance on critical incidents is contained in the Critical incident management APP .
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Read the full APP guidanceSource: College of Policing — Authorised Professional Practice · Crown copyright, licensed under Open Government Licence v3.0. Summary fetched 2026-06-27.