here - Richard Rhodes, Cumbria Police and Crime Commissioner

NOT PROTECTIVELY MARKED
P a g e |1
Office of the Police & Crime
Commissioner Report
Title: Independent Custody Visiting Scheme and
Animal Welfare Scheme – update report
Date: 2 July 2014
Agenda Item No: 10
Originating Officer: John Askew, Independent Custody Visiting Scheme Administrator
Executive Summary:
The Police and Crime Commissioner is required by statute to operate an Independent Custody
Visiting Scheme and such a scheme operates within Cumbria. This report covers the activities of
the scheme for two operating periods: October 2013 – January 2014 and February – May 2014.
Recommendation:
That the Police and Crime Commissioner notes’ the report.
1. Introduction & Background
1.1. The Independent Custody Visiting Scheme is made up of volunteers who live or work in
Cumbria. They make unannounced visits to Police Stations to check on the welfare and wellbeing of people in police custody. There are currently four panels of up to 12 volunteers
each across Cumbria, in Barrow, Kendal, North Cumbria and West Cumbria.
1.2. In addition to the Independent Custody Visiting Scheme, Cumbria Police and Crime
Commissioner also runs an Animal Welfare Scheme, although there is no statutory
requirement to do so. A panel, currently made up of nine volunteers drawn from the ranks
of the ICV scheme, makes visits to the dog section at Police Headquarters. The same
volunteers now also make visits to the Civil Nuclear Constabulary (CNC) dog section kennels
at Sellafield; although the scheme is operated by the CNC and is separate from that operated
by the OPCC.
NOT PROTECTIVELY MARKED
2.0
2.1
Supplementary Information
Scheme Membership
Panel
Barrow
Kendal
North
West
2.2
P a g e |2
As at 01 Nov
2013
11
7
9
10
As at 01
June 2014
11
10
12
12
Recruitment between 01 November 2013 and 31 May 2014
Panel
Barrow
Kendal
North Cumbria
West
Resignations and
retirements
2
1
1
1
New appointments
2
4
4
3
There have been a number of additions to membership of the panels and induction training
courses for the new members were held in Kendal on 22 November, Workington on 28
February and Carlisle on 2 May.
2.3
Visits and Statistics
Each panel aims to undertake one visit every week to each of the four designated police
stations, Barrow, Carlisle, Kendal and Workington. These targets were introduced in 2005
following consultation with the Chief Constable. Each panel covers one designated police
station and some also visit non-designated police stations whenever the cells at those
stations are in use. In addition, the North Cumbria panel makes visits to Penrith Police
Station when it is being used under Operation Safeguard, though no visits were required
during the period of this report.
Appleby Police Station is visited at least once when the cells there are used during the
Appleby Horse Fair. Members of the West Cumbria Panel make occasional visits to
Whitehaven Police Station, normally when the cells there are open for use, but also to
check on their maintenance and state of readiness.
Visit period October 2013 – May 2014 (eight months)
(The number in brackets denotes figures from the previous period (six months April – Sept
2013)
NOT PROTECTIVELY MARKED
Barrow
Kendal
West
(Workington)
West
(Whitehaven)
North
(Durranhill)
North
(Appleby)
Totals
No of visits
Detainees in
Custody
31 (24)
32 (24)
28 (23)
P a g e |3
Detainees
observed
Detainees
not seen
96 (68)
41 (46)
119 (81)
Detainees
seen and
spoken to
51 (39)
16 (24)
47 (24)
13 (14)
8 (14)
48 (42)
22 (15)
14 (24)
29 (23)
1 (0)
0 (0)
0 (0)
0 (0)
0 (0)
28 (23)
113 (98)
60 (50)
36 (22)
16 (24)
0 (1)
0 (0)
0 (0)
0 (0)
0 (0)
120 (95)
369 (293)
174 (137)
105 (92)
81 (86)
During the reporting period there were 369 detainees held when visits took place, of whom
21 were juveniles. Of the 369 detainees, 174 were visited and interviewed, representing
47.15% of detainees. In addition, 105 detainees who did not wish to be interviewed were
observed in their cells or through the cell hatch or seen during booking in, representing a
further 28.45% of detainees. 81 detainees (21.95%) were not available to be seen.
There are a number of reasons why visitors may not see detainees: they may be in
interview at the time of the visit, may have been admitted to hospital, or it may be that the
custody officer has advised the visitors not to visit because the detainee is potentially
violent. Wherever possible all such detainees are observed through the cell hatch. Whilst
the visitors have to be provided with access to all detainees, detainees do not have to
consent to be spoken to.
The report forms contain a small number of errors in recording and reconciling the numbers
of detainees. It is hoped that as visitors become more used to operating the new forms
these errors will be eradicated.
2.4
Night Observation Visits
In addition to the regular weekly visits, night observation visits also take place from time to
time. These are pre-arranged visits where two ICVs attend the custody suite to observe a
night shift at work; in order that they can gain a greater understanding of the work of the
custody staff and the processes and procedures used in custody.
Programmed night observation visits have taken place throughout the County as all newlyappointed ICVs are required to undertake at least one visit before their appointment is
confirmed. Normal practice is for each newly-appointed ICV to be accompanied by an
experienced colleague from the same panel.
NOT PROTECTIVELY MARKED
2.5
P a g e |4
Cumbria ICV Annual Conference – 26th April 2014
The Cumbria ICV Annual Conference took place on Saturday 26 th April 2014 at the offices of
Cumbria Rural Enterprise Agency, Redhills, Penrith. 22 ICVs attended the conference with
representation from the four panels as follows:
Panel
Barrow
Kendal
North
West
Attendance
3
7
8
4
Staff from the Office of the Police & Crime Commissioner who have responsibilities for the
Scheme were also in attendance. They were: Joanne Head (Governance and Business
Services Manager), Lisa Hodgson (Administration Assistant) and John Askew (ICV Scheme
Administrator).
The programme for the day included:



2.6
An address by the Police and Crime Commissioner
Presentations on:
1. Illegal Immigration and Human Trafficking and its effects in Cumbria, led by
Inspector David Barr of the Criminal Justice Unit;
2. Sexual and Domestic Violence and its impact on the community, led by
Detective Inspector Furzana Nazir of PPU South; and
3. A talk and demonstration by the Dog Section, led by PC Paddy Bainbridge
The delegates also held a series of workshop groups to discuss various scenarios they
encounter when making visits to custody and to debate ways of improving the current
scheme.
North West and North Wales Regional Conference
The North West and North Wales Region holds an annual conference for ICVs from Cumbria,
Lancashire, Cheshire, Greater Manchester, Merseyside and North Wales. Arrangements
are in hand for this year’s conference which will take place at Haydock Racecourse on
Saturday 4th October. To date 17 ICVs have registered to attend the conference.
2.7
Animal Welfare Scheme
Meetings between the OPCC, Animal Welfare Visitors and the Constabulary Dog Section
have continued to be held. Earlier this year, it was suggested that it would be necessary to
review and strengthen the Animal Welfare Scheme as two of the three Animal Welfare
Visitors are approaching the end of their nine-year tenure as ICVs. Work is presently ongoing to review the operation of the scheme with a view to re-launching it on 1 January
2015. In the meantime, six further Animal Welfare visitors have been appointed on a
temporary basis from the ranks of the four ICV panels.
NOT PROTECTIVELY MARKED
P a g e |5
A training course was held on Friday 7 March at Penrith Rugby Club where the new
members were trained by Mr Mick Chidgey, Regional Manager of the Dogs’ Trust, Sgt Mark
Yielder, Dog Section Manager and John Askew, assisted by PC Chris Morgan, Dog Handler,
and Mrs Lucy Morgan, Kennel Handyperson.
The course was also attended by Sgt Laura Forster, Dog Section Manager for the Civil
Nuclear Constabulary at Sellafield. Agreement has been reached that the Animal Welfare
Visitors will also visit CNC kennels at Sellafield, once a month, to check on the welfare of the
CNC Police Dogs; although this is a separate scheme from the OPCC scheme at Carleton Hall.
New rotas have been introduced and the six new Animal Welfare visitors have now begun
their role. Monthly visits to the kennels at Carleton Hall have continued and to date there
have been no issues to report in relation to the health or well-being of the Police Dogs or
their accommodation.
2.8
Administrative changes to ICV Scheme
There have been a number of revisions made to the administrative operation of the scheme.
A new version of the Home Office Guidance “A Code of Practice for Independent Custody
Visiting” was issued in March 2013 and has been distributed to every Police station and
each Independent Custody Visitor. The Cumbria Custody Visiting Handbook has been
revised and re-issued following the introduction of the new Code of Practice and new
and/or revised policies have been brought into use covering Appointments and Termination,
Complaints, Appeals and Performance Review. Copies have been provided to every ICV
and both the Cumbria Handbook and Home Office Code of Practice have been uploaded
onto the PCC’s website.
New Report forms, which were trialled extensively from the middle of 2013, have now been
formally introduced. Based on 2 part NCR (no carbon required) duplicate pads to avoid the
need for photocopying, which had become difficult following the withdrawal of
photocopying facilities in custody, the new reports have been welcomed by the ICVs. Other
than for a few problems in reconciling numbers recorded on the forms, the new forms are
proving to be a great deal easier to use than the multiple-choice forms they replaced.
3
Implications
3.1
Financial
Operation of the Custody Visiting and Animal Welfare Schemes is included within the
current budgetary provision of the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner. There are
no direct financial implications as a result of this report.
3.2
Legal
The Police and Crime Commissioner is required to operate an Independent Custody Visiting
Scheme to comply with the requirements of Section 51(1) of the Police Reform Act 2002 (as
amended).
NOT PROTECTIVELY MARKED
P a g e |6
3.3
Risk
There are operational risks associated with the Independent Custody Visiting Scheme. If
the scheme does not operate effectively the scheme may fail to run and therefore the
Commissioner would not meet his statutory obligations. Failure to adequately recruit or
train the volunteers could lead to the scheme failing, or the safety of personnel being
compromised.
4
Supplementary Information


The Cumbria Independent Custody Visiting Scheme Handbook – published April 2014
Home Office Code of Practice on Independent Custody Visiting – March 2013 - ISBN
9780108512315

Download Report