Police Custody Research Articles

Randomized controlled internal pilot trial of a diversion programme for adolescents in police custody who possess illicit substances.

Adolescents involved in criminal proceedings are significantly more likely to re-offend than a similar population diverted away from criminal justice. Adolescents who use substances and offend are at higher risk of experiencing negative social, psychological and physical problems that often persist into adulthood. There is some evidence that brief interventions combined with appropriate psychoeducation may be effective in reducing adolescent substance use. Prospective two-armed, individually randomized internal pilot randomized controlled trial (RCT) with follow-up at 6months. Young people across three police forces-Kent, Cornwall and Sefton-arrested in possession of class B or C illicit substances were randomly allocated to receive the ReFrame intervention or business as usual. In total, 102 participants were eligible of whom 76 consented and 73 were followed up at 6months. Outcomes addressed offending behaviour, frequency of substance use, wellbeing and mental health. The study was conducted between February and December 2022. All progression criteria were met, 80% of those eligible consented, 96% adhered to their allocated treatment and 88% were followed up at the primary endpoint. The feasibility of conducting the pilot trial was a success and it will now proceed to a definitive RCT.

Exploring Reasons for Non-Engagement From a Peer-Led Diversionary Intervention for Veterans in Police Custody.

UK veterans with complex needs arrested in police custody can access support through pre-charge diversion into treatment and ancillary services. We consider why veterans in police custody disengaged from a peer-led criminal justice diversionary support service in one UK region that adopted a continuous case management approach. Seven hundred and fifty-seven veterans were assessed to have high levels of comorbid health needs and socio-economic harms, with one-quarter (26.7%, n = 202) subsequently disengaging from the service. A logistic regression model using Multivariate Imputation by Chained Equations identified that veterans of a younger age, no-fixed-abode, a history of incarceration, and those from a Royal Navy background were likelier to disengage from the intervention. We conclude that this peer-based diversionary model has some efficacy in maintaining the engagement of a highly complex, comorbid segment of criminally-justice-exposed UK military veterans. The perceived benefits of an integrated peer-based model predicated on continuous case-management techniques are discussed.

An exploratory study into cell approaches for intelligence collection from detainees within an English Police Custody Suite

Abstract The value of intelligence gathered from cell approaches in police custody suites remains largely unexplored, presenting a crucial area for research. This study explores the collection of Human Intelligence (HUMINT) and the generation of Source (Covert Human Intelligence Source, CHIS) referrals during cell approaches. Data was collected from 102 cell approaches by which 54 were undertaken by dedicated intelligence officers and 48 by detectives in a police custody suite in England over a 3-month period. Results revealed that detectives, when tasked, were significantly more successful than dedicated intelligence officers in securing intelligence during cell approaches and to make source (CHIS) referrals. A detainee’s willingness to engage was associated with intelligence provision, with revenge and lifestyle as key motivating factors. Detainees were significantly more likely to provide intelligence post-charge rather than pre-charge, though the time of day and detainee age showed no significant correlations with intelligence gathering. This study discussed the importance of optimizing intelligence collection and source referrals during cell approaches.

Identification of the Vehicle of a Hit-and-Run Accident Based on Patterned Evidence

Leaving the scene of the traffic crash without reporting is called hit-and-run collision and tracing the alleged vehicle is the main challenge in delivering justice. However, it is not very difficult to trace the vehicle by using Locard’s principle when a vehicle leaves trace evidence either on the body/ clothing or scene. Hit-and-run collisions are a punishable offence as they delay crash notification thereby delaying emergency response which increases the likelihood of traffic fatalities. The following case discussion is based on a dead body of a foot cyclist found at a bend on a byroad in a rural area.He was a 72-year-old carpenter, non-alcoholic, driving an improvised foot cycle run by a motor, which could run up to 40 Kilometres per hour. There was a tire mark on the back side of his shirt. According to the police, the foot cycle had been found fallen on the road without runover injuries. The autopsy revealed multiple blunt force injuries including grazed abrasions on the head, chest, and limbs. Internal organs did not show any significant evidence of natural illness or intoxication. However, there were no paint, grease, glass fragments, etc., or CCTV record evidence. However, a motorcyclist saw a tractor with a trailer stopped beside the victim and the driver was standing by the side and drove off in a while.The absence of paint or grease on the body suggested that the floorboard of the offending vehicle could be higher. The alleged tractor with the trailer was taken into police custody based on a tipoff. According to the Government analyst’s opinion, the tire mark on the shirt was compatible with the tire tread pattern of the right rear tire of the tractor-trailer. The cause of death was multiple injuries to the head and chest due to run-over by a moving vehicle. The importance of examination of clothing in road crashes especially in hit and run is reemphasized in this case.

“Never Settler Enough”

In this article, the authors examine the systemic nature of state violence and racial terror in the context of the Australian settler state and Indigenous deaths in custody. Drawing on Steve Martinot and Jared Sexton’s (2003) concept of a “double economy of terror,” the authors contend that police violence and Aboriginal deaths in custody must be read in terms of the standard operating procedures of a double economy of terror that ensures the institutional reproduction of the Australian settler colonial state. Death in police custody, Perera and Pugliese argue, is coextensive with the larger governmental and administrative apparatuses of the colonial state. In the face of the settler state’s systemic ignorability of the ongoing racialized violence against Indigenous peoples, the authors conclude their paper opposing such a state with an Indigenous voice that refuses tacit acquiescence and that howls with rage at the mounting Aboriginal deaths in custody and rates of Indigenous imprisonment.

Tackling health inequalities through integrated care in English police custodies: an inclusion perspective and model of care

PurposeThe purpose of this research is to identify novel ways of tackling health inequalities of underserved populations. It explores the opportunities presented by the changes in health and social care legislation to employ historically underused services, such as police custody healthcare providers, in addressing health inequalities.Design/methodology/approachThis research analyses the policy approaches to tackling health inequalities in the UK in the past 40 years with an emphasis on those experienced by the people detained in English police custodies. It analyses the current model of healthcare in police custody and proposes a novel integrated model of care and joint commissioning opportunities in funding it.FindingsPolicies to tackle health inequalities have largely failed, as they became entrenched. But recent changes in the health and social care legislation in England offer opportunities to address them by employing historically underused healthcare services, such as those operating in police custodies.Research limitations/implicationsThe research does not touch upon ethical considerations related to the patient privacy aspect of integrated care. Interventions by and interactions with police custody healthcare providers would be visible to all professionals with access to the patient’s health record. As with all novel interventions or innovative models of care, the effectiveness of such clinical interventions remains to be established by further research. It opens a new line of research on quality improvement through integration of care and explores understudied aspects of joint commissioning of integrated care.Practical implicationsIt offers health commissioners and public health leaders the opportunity to employ police custody healthcare services in reaching their population health management objectives and meeting their health inequalities objectives at local level. It also gives police and crime commissioners the opportunity to address the health drivers of criminal behaviour that overlap with health inequalities. It offers funding opportunities presented by jointly commissioning services at lower costs to both police and health commissioners alike. It improves the health outcomes of historically underserved populations by facilitating access to health and social care services and facilities.Social implicationsReducing health inequalities and disparities in health outcomes can decrease the costs of the healthcare services over the long term and might contribute to reducing criminality by addressing inequities and some health drivers of criminal behaviour.Originality/valueThe paper explores understudied opportunities offered by the recent changes in health and social care legislation in England and includes underused resources to tackle health inequalities.

Racialized Boundaries Against Haitian Immigrants in Chile: Two Case Studies

Racism is a type of systematic power abuse by a dominant group against diverse minorities through discursive and material practices (Van Dijk, 2021). This article draws attention to the generation of racializing discourses, particularly towards the Haitian immigrant population in Chile, in (a) mass media, which mainly focuses on radio, television, and newspapers such as Radio Bíobío, Chilevision, and La Tercera newspaper, and (b) government policy, as articulated in the 2018 executive order “Plan Humanitarian Orderly Return” (PHOR). After delineating the historical background of recent Haitian migration to Chile, authors deploy Critical Discourses Analysis (CDA) of two powerful cases of popularly mediated racializing discourses reflected in media coverage of (a) the case of a Haitian woman, Joane Florvil, who died soon after taken into police custody on a wrongful charge of abandoning her infant in 2017 and (b) the racially inflected 2018 executive order PHOR which overwhelmingly targeted Haitians for “voluntary deportation”. Authors consider headlines, article coverage of institutional agents and minority subjects, and state-generated documents. Informed by postcolonial thought, the study discusses current expressions of racialized boundaries in the Chilean media focusing particularly on the disciplining and regulation of migrants based on the idea of order

Differing Perceptions of Criminal Justice and Views of Law Enforcement: A Cluster-Analytic Approach to Racial-Ethnic Identities.

Race and ethnicity within psycholegal research have often been treated as nominal variables which ignores their rich within-cultural diversity and can sometimes lead to sweeping pejorative conclusions (e.g., higher prevalence of arrests). The development of several salient measures of racial-ethnic attitudes-such as the CERIS-A and MEIM-has sparked a refocusing on dimensional perspectives of race and ethnicity. This refocus becomes especially important when examining views of law enforcement and criminal justice in light of unwarranted deaths of minoritized groups while in police custody. The current study recruited a juror-eligible, online community sample (i.e., MTurk) to study their views of justice and police. Using the seven subscales of the CERIS-A, four cluster groups were identified that spanned participants' race and ethnicity. Unique patterns emerged when comparing the four groups. For example, the cluster high on both multiculturalism and their own racial-ethnic identity had far more negative views of police conduct regarding its lawfulness and fairness. Further differences emerged for views of criminal justice including the death penalty. The research implications of these findings were discussed.

Increase in presentations with new-onset psychiatric disorders in a psychiatric emergency department in Berlin, Germany during the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic - a retrospective cross-sectional study.

While numerous studies have identified an increase in symptoms of depression as well as anxiety and distress due to the COVID-19 pandemic, relatively few studies have investigated the new-onset of psychiatric diseases during the pandemic. This study focuses on the number of psychiatric new-onset diagnoses in a psychiatric emergency department (pED) in Berlin, Germany during the second wave of the pandemic (i.e. from 09/15/2020 to 03/01/2021 = COVID-19-period) compared to pre-pandemic times (09/15/2019 to 03/01/2020 = control period). We focused on diagnostic subgroups and performed logistic regression analysis to investigate potential risk groups based on covariables such as age, gender, homelessness, attending in police custody and familial relationship. Overall, there was a 59.7% increase in new-onset psychiatric diagnoses during the COVID-19-period. Increases in the following diagnoses were observed: new-onset of substance-related and addictive disorders (+192.5%), depressive disorders (+115.8%), schizophrenia spectrum and psychotic disorders (+113.3%) and anxiety disorders (+63.6%). These diagnostic subgroups, together with attending in police custody, were found to predict pED presentations with new-onset during the COVID-19-period. Interestingly, in the group of new-onset psychiatric diseases in the COVID-19-period, higher amounts of job loss and living alone as well as a relative decrease in familial relationships were observed. COVID-19 infections and post-COVID-19 syndrome are unlikely to have played a substantial role in the increase of new-onset diseases in this study. Conclusion: Our findings underline the role of indirect factors in new-onset of psychiatric diseases during the pandemic and should be a caveat for future pandemic control policies.

Judiciarisation of the mentally ill and/or mentally incapacitated in the Malawi criminal justice system: Gaps and flaws of human rights protection

Rates (where recorded) of mental illness, intellectual disabilities and co-morbidities are disproportionately high and rising among global prison populations. There is little data on the extent of mental illness and/or mental incapacity in prison populations in the Global South. Criminal justice systems are generally under-resourced, with a lack of adequate forensic monitoring, availability of specialist psychological and psychiatric expertise, and system coordination with mental health treatment and support services.Very little is known with regard to the judiciarisation of the mentally ill and/or mentally incapacitated in African criminal justice systems. In this Commentary we focus on Malawi, as a least developed country in sub-Saharan Africa. We present the international human rights framework pertinent to the judiciarisation of people with disability, the global discourse around disability-neutral doctrines and the contentiousness of the link between mental and legal capacity. We discuss challenges and procedural complexities in the Malawi criminal justice system as it relates to how people with mental illness and/or mental incapacity navigate the process and to what extent their basic human rights are upheld.Mental health legislation and policies to uphold the rights of the mentally ill and/or mentally incapacitated in the criminal justice system are underdeveloped (and under-resourced). There are backlogs in forensic assessments to determine competency to stand trial and criminal responsibility; inadequate availability of forensic beds; and insufficient coverage of community and prison based mental health services. Lengthy detention periods in overcrowded unsafe conditions are common, with little or no access to specialist medical care.We present medico-legal and clinical recommendations for enhanced human rights monitoring and protections cognisant of the various challenges in ensuring the implementation of human rights and of due process in Malawi. We encourage the government to consider formal diversion options via mental health courts and invest in the capacity of forensic specialists and hospitals to support court assessments and community care. Oversight mechanisms preventing human rights abuses of these very vulnerable individuals are crucial in all mental health settings in Malawi, not limited to police custody, remand detention facilities and prisons. Ratification of the Optional Protocol of the Convention against Torture is imperative.

Multilingual police interaction: a conversation analysis of crime control in border checks

Abstract In today’s global world, many people can move across borders as travelling has become much easier in many ways. However, the securitization of borders has not been relaxed, implying that multilingual police-civilian interactions are becoming more ‘commonplace’. Within the framework of conversation analysis, this article presents a novel study on multilingual police border checks. These are police encounters “on the ground” (not in police custody), and as such, there are no interpreters or language experts present. Focusing on the analysis of a single-case police encounter in which participants have to rely on a second language (English) that none of them are proficient in (i.e., ‘novice-novice interaction’), this article examines practices that speakers use to resolve a crime involving the illegal possession of drugs. In addition, some complementary findings from other border checks are presented. Overall, this study shows that participants attempt to achieve intersubjectivity by using interactional (and embodied) practices (e.g., word choice, repair, speech simplification) oriented toward recipient design. By doing so, participants shape the progressivity of the encounter and ultimately achieve their objectives in the interaction. As such, this article shows how a high-stake (police) multilingual situation can also be resolved in the absence of a language expert.

Reform of police custody: piecemeal tweaks, defunding, abolition or transformation?

This paper argues for the substantial reduction of the ambit of police custody, and for the regulation of police conduct in custody blocks. Detention in custody is widely used by the police to apply pressure on suspects to make confessions. This is oppressive and wasteful. Custody should be used much more sparingly and only where detention is necessary for safety reasons. Custody can in any case be a dangerous place for detainees. An average of up to 23 people die in police custody every year, including four detainees from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic Heritage, a greater proportion than their percentage of the population. Regulation of police conduct in custody blocks is supposed to be carried out by the little-known statutory Independent Custody Visiting Scheme. The scheme enables members of the public to make unannounced visits to police stations and to check and report on the welfare of detainees. As the result of government policy and the power of the police, the visiting scheme is neither independent nor effective, fails to challenge the police, makes no discernible impact on their behaviour or on the deaths in custody figures, provides no measure of police accountability, and obscures the need for urgent reform. This paper recommends immediate implementation of these reforms because they would save lives.

A Critical Study on Custodial Torture in India with Special Reference in Chennai

Torture and violence are known since ancient times. The torture essentially is the cruelty committed by the persons in power over the helpless and the weak. Custodial torture means torture in police custody, jails or in custody of other governmental authorities.

Police perspectives on the economic considerations of providing healthcare in short-term custodial settings in Australia.

Providing appropriate healthcare to people in short-term police custody settings (i.e. watch-houses) is challenging due to the complexity of detainee health needs and the limitations of the custodial environment. However, little is known about how detainee healthcare is managed in Australia, including economic considerations. This study had two aims: (1) to understand police perspectives on the costs associated with the delivery of healthcare to watch-house detainees in Queensland, Australia and (2) to scope the applicability of the Prison Healthcare Expenditure Reporting Checklist (PHERC) tool for the Australian watch-house context. The study employed an exploratory qualitative descriptive approach. A purposive sample comprised 16 watch-house staff from six regions in Queensland, Australia, interviewed between April and November 2021. A key finding was that police viewed healthcare expenditure as a major, but largely unavoidable cost for Australian watch-houses. Participants reported that direct expenditure comprised mostly of in-house healthcare services (of which there were a variety of models), but also costs of medication and health-related consumables. Indirect costs included costs of escorting and guarding detainees requiring transfer to hospital for health assessment and treatment. Participants reported that the PHERC was not applicable to the Australian watch-house context. Future research should explore the cost-effectiveness of different watch-house healthcare delivery models and how best to measure this.

The mechanism for ensuring human rights and freedoms during police custody

The scientific article was written with the aim of determining the mechanism of ensuring human rights and freedoms during police custody and the problem of its implementation in practice.
 Under the mechanism of ensuring human rights and freedoms during police custody, it is proposed to understand the system of guarantees for ensuring human rights and freedoms, defined by international and domestic normative legal acts. Attention is focused on the constituent elements of the mechanism for ensuring human rights and freedoms during police custody.
 The work defines ways of ensuring human rights by the police during police custody. The author singles out some problems of the implementation of police care in practice and offers ways to solve them.
 The question of the use of force and special means by policemen during police custody is defined as debatable. Police custody is proposed to be understood as a measure that has a transitional nature from preventive to coercive. The question of whether police custody belongs to the types of police measures is considered open.
 As a problematic point, the lack of numbering of police custody protocols is highlighted. It is proposed to supplement section II of the Instructions for the preparation of materials on the application of police custody with paragraph 1-1, which would provide for the presence of a protocol series and number.
 Emphasis is placed on the lack of a clear definition of the appeal stage during the implementation of police custody. It is proposed to supplement the Instructions for the preparation of materials on the use of police custody with section IV "Appeals of Protocols".
 The author emphasizes that the technical recording of a policeman's actions should become a mandatory element of his activity. It is proposed to delete the words "if technically possible" in Clause 6 of Chapter II of the Instructions for the preparation of materials on the use of police custody.
 Outlined in the scientific article, the problems of the registration of police care are only the basis for further scientific research, which should clearly define the type of police measure of police care, the problems of its implementation taking into account the people-centered approach in the activities of the National Police, as well as ways to solve the identified problems by making changes to normative legal acts.

آیا ایران در آستانه انقلاب دیگری است؟

How do we make sense of Iran’s “Women, Life, Freedom”, the extraordinary political uprising that came to being following the death of the Kurdish Mahsa Zhina Amini in September 2022 in the police custody for wearing an "improper" hijab? This is neither a “feminist revolution” per se, nor simply the revolt of the new generation, nor merely about mandatory hijab. This is a movement to reclaim life, a struggle to liberate free and dignified existence from an internal colonization. As the primary objects of this colonization, women have become the protagonists of a movement that may set the Islamic Republic on a revolutionary course.

Retrospective Review of Antecustodial Deaths Referred for Medicolegal Autopsy at the Medical University of South Carolina.

Deaths occurring in police custody have dominated public discourse over recent years. However, deaths occurring after law enforcement have initiated nonphysical contact but before active restraint or containment lie outside the strict definition of "in custody." These "antecustodial" deaths demonstrate a unique population and interaction with law enforcement. A retrospective analysis of medicolegal cases referred to the Medical University of South Carolina from September 1, 2012, to April 28, 2022 was performed. Deaths during nonphysical interaction with or during evasion of law enforcement occurred in 78 cases and were categorized by demographic data, cause of death, manner of death, the presence of drugs and/or alcohol, and circumstances surrounding the interaction. Antecustodial deaths occurred primarily during law enforcement pursuit and deescalation scenarios. Decedents were predominantly male (92.3%) with a Black-to-White ratio of 1.1:1. The average age of male and female decedents was 35.7 and 32.2 years, respectively. The most common causes of death were gunshot wounds and blunt trauma sustained in motor vehicle crashes. The most common manner of death was homicide (43.6%), followed by suicide (28.2%) and accident (28.2%).

Mental Health and Health-Related Quality of Life After Firearm Injury: A Preliminary Descriptive Study.

Mental Health and Health-Related Quality of Life After Firearm Injury: A Preliminary Descriptive Study.

Suppression of academics and school training in Iran during the "Woman, Life, Freedom" revolution.

For the past 6 months, there has been an ongoing revolution in Iran after the brutal death of Zhina (Mahsa) Amini in morality police custody. Iranian universities' professors and students have been on the frontline of this revolution and have been fired or sentenced. On the other hand, Iranian high schools and primary schools have been under suspected toxic gas attack. In the current article, the latest status of oppression of the university students and professors and toxic gas attack on primary and high schools in Iran has been evaluated.

The Case Against "Excited Delirium".

Citizens' deaths in police custody are sometimes attributed to "excited delirium syndrome" (ExDS). This terminology is rejected by the American Medical Association and the American Psychiatric Association. ExDS has no demonstrable pathology but has been proposed as predisposing to sudden death, thus exonerating police. Ketamine use during arrests complicates manner of death. ExDS deaths trigger lawsuits claiming police misconduct and excessive force. Defendant officers and municipalities have used ExDS to distance themselves from liability, using expert testimony from nonpsychiatrists. This argument is expressed despite lack of autopsy findings, the false idea that mental illness itself can lead to sudden death, and the absence of consistent diagnostic criteria. This article traces the history of ExDS and reviews the arguments for and against its use in psychiatry and law enforcement. The authors conclude that the label is medically unreliable, has eroded confidence in police-citizen interactions, and obscures dynamics of deaths in custody.