Preliminary findings on police custody delivery in the twenty-first century: Is it ‘good’ enough?

Figures & data

Table 1. The police custody suite typology.

Type	Example	Owned, managed and staffed by who?	Busyness	Other features
1. The hard-pressed public suite	Mill city	Owned, managed and staffed by the police	‘Middling busy’ (1: 311)^a
2. The hard-pressed persevering public suite	Stone Street	Owned, managed and staffed by the police	‘Busiest’ (1: 325)	Described as unfit for purpose by custody managers responding to the survey
3. The unhurried hybrid	Combiville	Owned by the private sector through a PFI, managed by the police and non-warranted civilians employed by the police	‘Least busy’ (1: 239)	Staff and facilities are shared with a neighbouring force
4. The hard-working hybrid	Combicity	Owned by the private sector through a PFI, managed by the police and non-warranted civilians are employed by the police and the private sector	‘Middling busy’ (1: 303)
5. The private super suite	Newtown	Owned, managed and staffed almost entirely by the private sector	‘Busiest’ (1: 383)

^aThough the site chosen as an example of the hard-pressed but persevering type is not one of the busiest, it is border line between the ‘middling busy’ and ‘busiest category’: 1–260.99 = ‘Least busy’; 262–322.99 = ‘Medium busy’; 323–605 = ‘Busiest’. In addition, it was also closed for part of 2012 for refurbishment, meaning that its average throughput was slightly lower than might ordinarily have been expected.

Table 2. Access to custody legal advice (based on available data in the HMIP/HMIC inspection reports).

Police force	Custody record dip sample data			Prisoner survey data
	No. of custody records analysed	Custody records with information missing	Offer of legal advice accepted	No. of respondents	Legal advice offered to detainees	Offer of legal advice accepted
Mill City	45	0	65% (n = 29)	45	92% (n = 41)	71% (n = 32)
Stone Street	30	2 cases – no information was recorded on whether advice was requested or declined	27% (n = 8)	No data
Combiville	30	1 case – no information on why a detainee was interviewed before their solicitor arrived	33% (n = 10)	77	87% (n = 67)	64% (n = 49)
Combicity	30	7 cases – no information was recorded on why the suspect declined legal advice	63% (n = 19)	44	84% (n = 37)	51% (n = 22)