7.2 Immediate Post-Incident Duties and Emergency Handover

7.2 Immediate Post-Incident Duties and Emergency Handover

Quick Answer: When physical intervention ends, duty of care continues. Care for the subject and injured colleagues, create space and safe positioning after release, brief emergency services with circumstances, position, duration and difficulties, preserve evidence and witnesses, and ensure each staff member writes a full individual report. Handover to police or ambulance must cover risk behaviours, restraint method and duration, and wellbeing concerns.

Many exam candidates treat “post-incident” as paperwork only. The SIA specification treats it as continued professional responsibility. The seconds and minutes after release are when medical collapse, secondary assault, lost evidence and incomplete accounts most often create harm and legal exposure.

This section covers assessment criteria on responsibilities immediately following physical intervention. Reporting quality, reflection and skills currency follow in 7.3.

Continued duty of care after the hold

Release does not mean “job done”. Until the person is safe, has received first aid if needed, and has been handed over to a responsible agency or left under control appropriate to the risk, you remain responsible for foreseeable harm linked to your intervention.

Post-release priorities, in order of life safety:

1. Airway, breathing, circulation — reassess; place an unconscious breathing casualty in the recovery position; start CPR if required
2. Bleeding and injury — staff and subject
3. Secondary violence — the subject may attack again; bystanders may intervene
4. Environment — traffic, stairs, glass, cold outdoor conditions, hostile crowd
5. Dignity and privacy — reduce public spectacle once control is restored

Walking away to the door while the subject sits dazed on a kerb with head injury is a duty-of-care failure even if the hold itself was justified.

Care for the injured

Anyone injured during the incident needs assessment within your first-aid competence, plus emergency services when injuries are serious, unknown or worsening. Do not assume that “they were fighting so they refuse help” ends your duty — offer assistance, document refusal if competent capacity appears present, and still call an ambulance when signs are serious.

Typical post-PI first-aid triggers include head strikes, falls to hard surfaces, cuts from glass, suspected fractures, breathing difficulty during or after restraint, chest pain, collapse, seizure, and signs of acute behavioural disturbance discussed earlier in the guide.

Creating space and safe positioning after release

Immediately after disengagement:

• Create space so the subject is not crushed by staff or bystanders and so you have reaction distance if aggression returns
• Safe positioning — prefer positions that protect breathing and reduce re-escalation; avoid leaving someone face-down or bent double after a hard struggle
• Separate parties to a fight so the original victims and aggressors are not face-to-face
• Control exits and kit — radios, body-worn video, keys and barriers back under control
• Decide next step — de-escalate and monitor, escort off premises, detain for police if lawful and necessary, or hand over to ambulance

Safe positioning after release is both a medical and a safety skill. A person who has just been held may still be hypoxic, intoxicated or furious. Give them air, time and clear instructions while you reassess.

Briefing emergency services

When police or ambulance arrive, give a short, factual briefing. Panic, blame or missing detail wastes critical time. Include:

• Circumstances — what led to intervention (assault, weapon, refusal to leave after warnings, self-harm risk)
• Position used — standing escort, two-person hold, any ground contact, face-up/face-down if it occurred
• Duration — approximate how long force was applied and how long any high-risk position lasted
• Difficulties — extreme strength, weapons, crowd, language barrier, failed de-escalation, medical signs mid-hold
• Current state — conscious level, breathing, injuries, intoxication, ongoing aggression
• What you need — medical assessment, removal, public-order support, crime-scene preservation

Handover content for police and ambulance

Structure the handover so clinicians and officers can act:

Ambulance crews especially need method and duration because restraint-related medical emergencies depend on how and how long someone was held. Police need risk behaviours and weapons for officer safety and investigation.

Preserve evidence and secure witness testimony

Post-incident evidence work protects victims, staff and the truth of what happened:

• Secure the scene if a serious assault or injury occurred — limit unnecessary traffic through blood, glass or weapons
• Identify CCTV / body-worn video — note camera locations and request retention through venue procedure; do not delete footage
• Weapons and property — make safe and hand to police; do not pocket evidence
• Witnesses — take names and contact details of staff and independent witnesses while they are still present
• Subject details — identity if known, descriptions, companions, vehicle registration if relevant

Do not coach witnesses into a single script. Ask what they saw; record it. Coaching damages credibility later.

Individual reports — each staff member accounts for their own actions

Each staff member involved should complete a full individual report covering what they saw, decided and did. A single “team report” written by one person for everyone is weak practice: it loses detail, invites collusion allegations and fails when accounts legitimately differ on timing or who held which arm.

Good immediate practice:

• Write as soon as practicable while memory is fresh
• Stick to facts you personally know; mark hearsay clearly
• Include force used by you, why you believed it necessary, how long, and any injuries you observed
• Note challenges you made or received about excessive force or medical risk
• Record police/ambulance reference numbers when issued

Detailed log content and why incomplete reports create risk are expanded in section 7.3. The post-incident duty starts here: do not leave site without capturing your account if your employer’s procedure requires it and it is safe to stay.

Worked example — ambulance and police handover

After a two-person escort from a bar, the subject collapses outside. Staff release fully, open the airway, call 999, and keep bystanders back. On ambulance arrival the door supervisor briefs: “Male, mid-20s, ejected after punching a customer. Two-person standing hold for about four minutes; no ground restraint. Became quiet and pale on release; now reduced consciousness. No known medical history. Head wound from fall. Colleague cut on glass.” Police receive the same core facts plus witness names and that body-worn video was running. Each staff member later writes their own report.

That sequence — care, space, accurate brief, evidence, individual accounts — is what “immediate post-incident duties” means on the SIA paper and on the pavement.

Exam focus

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