First, I need to give you some examples of police officers getting things badly wrong and then I want to make certain points – again – that arise from them. These examples are all real, incidentally. NUMBER ONE Officers are directed to man outside a pub who seems confused and vulnerable.  They talk to him […]

Another day, another child detained in police custody for a protracted period in sensitive circumstances. This time it was under the Mental Health Act as a place of safety and she was there for 44hrs “without food or drink”. Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary came across the case when undertaking a routine inspection of child […]

Imagine you’re the custody officer at a police station, you’re most of the way through a very busy shift in which you’ve already had a person collapse with chest pains and you’ve brought proceedings to a standstill to give attention to the arrival and intervention of paramedics and you’ve had two different people brought through […]