I work for a homeless charity. One of our service users was evicted by management from emergency accommodation. This was because he had mental health (hearing voices) related violence- assaulting peers in accommodation. However, management evicted him without putting safeguarding referrals into the local council or referring to mental health services.
I found out he stabbed someone 30 times (attempted murder charge) days after being evicted. Our manager informed us in a group staff meeting.
However when the police came back and questioned staff they were surprised that we knew and asked how/when we were informed. The police said we were informed prior to the service user being brought into custody/the police knowing it was him. He was arrested a day after this meeting.
The police called a manager in my presence, she lied to them when questioned saying we didn't know why he was in custody. I asked later how we knew and she said an informal source. Then in my presence she rang our operation manager and what I could hear from the conversation another service user reported it to staff (prior to the service user being arrested). But our operations manager pretended to know nothing by going to custody days later as a welfare check on the service user.
I also shared information verbally against GDPR – info sharing with the police stating the user had mental health needs and I don't think he should have been evicted without support.
A detective called me after I shared my details with the police that attended and said that the service user is being charged with attempted murder but on bail as they can't prove intent. That the service user is unknown to the victim, so they don't understand why he did it. But now I said mental health which they wasn't aware of, they are concerned he is a risk to public and they can obviously use this as part of their prosecution.
The detective also told me we knew that the service user had stabbed someone prior to the police because of when this staff meeting took place.
I told the police officer to submit a written information sharing request to management if they wanted access to our case records as I was limited to what I could share.
Now I'm really scared I'm with a corrupt employer who are withholding information from the police. But I have no savings and I'm scared of disciplinary processes and the impact this will have on getting new jobs. I've got a conditional offer for a new job but still needed references.
Am I obliged to tell the police everything I know?
Or only if they ask to give me a statement? What would you do in this situation.