New research for 2013

I am very pleased and delighted to announce that I am the recipient of a major research grant from the Economic and Social Research Council, one of the key funders of social science research in the UK.

The title of the research is 'Good' police custody: theorizing the 'is' and the 'ought'. It will commence in September 2013, taking in multiple sites in the UK over a three-year period.

Police custody is where an arrested person is taken whilst a decision is reached about what should be done with the case, for example whether to charge or bail them. It is therefore an important gateway to the criminal justice process, where much is at stake for suspects and staff. In recent years, there have been changes to the way that police custody areas are staffed and managed, in particular, civilianization of roles formerly done by police officers has given way to privatization through the use of public-finance initiatives (i.e. when a private security company owns and/or manages a police custody suite and the police let it from them).

Though there have been a few recent studies of police custody, including my own book, ‘Police Custody’ (Willan, 2011), there have been few attempts to rigorously examine ‘good’ police custody or to map out changes to police custody arrangements on a national basis. Information about how police custody is currently delivered can be used to theorize about 'good' police custody practices and 'good' policing, and explore how police custody should be delivered in the future.

Aims of the research

1. Describe and appraise variations in police custody arrangements across the UK.

2. Identify the key dimensions of police custody areas in operation. They might include occupational culture(s), power, fairness, justice, emotions and relationships, cost, governance and accountability.

3. Explore how police custody arrangements such as civilianisation and privatisation impact on these key dimensions of police custody.

4. Conceptualise and theorise the dimensions of 'good' police custody and the links between them, and examine the implications for 'good' policing.

5. Develop benchmarks and a survey tool to monitor and improve police custody facilities, complementing the inspections conducted by HMIP/HMIC.

Impact

Though the study will be of great interest to academics and researchers, it will also be of interest to key stakeholders such as the 52 police organisations in the UK, HMIC, HMIP, the IPCC, as well as private security companies contracted to manage/staff police custody areas. These key stakeholders will be provided with a better understanding of:

- How police custody operates in practice and also how it should operate. Much research in the past has focused on police malpractice, whereas the proposed research will examine what constitutes 'good' police custody practices. Such information could be used to enhance public confidence in the police and to increase the likelihood that the public continue to cooperate and engaged with the police in the future.

- Police custody in a local and national perspective. This will enable police organisations to compare themselves with other similar police organisations and help them to understand where they might improve or where they are already good enough.

- How to monitor and improve police custody practices on an ongoing and long-term basis. The research will lead to benchmarks and a survey tool which police organisations can use to measure their performance and which will be complementary to HMIC/HMIP inspections.

- How to balance the need for cost-effective public service delivery with the need for security, fairness, justice, legitimacy and accountability, under austere financial conditions.

police custody as 'miniature prisons'

I've recently come across information about this forthcoming BBC documentary on police custody (see the link below). From the information on the BBC website, it seems that some of the insights contained in the programme may well be accurate. For instance, the idea that police custody is comparable with prison is something I explore in my book (Skinns, 2011: 200-202). In many respects, police custody does resemble prison in that, like prisoners, suspects experience a loss of control and limitations on their freedom. Police custody is also like prison in that they are both volatile and fraught places where staff-suspect relationships are paramount. The main exception to the idea that police custody is like prison can be found in the fact that police custody is not formally a place of punishment. Those in police custody are only suspects after all.

Another idea contained in the information in the programme also seemed to ring true. In this blurb, they say that police officers have to act with humanity yet with authority. My argument on this issue is that police officers found it more difficult to juggle this conflicting role compared to civilian detention officers. Being caring and compassionate has not been found to be a key feature of the occupational culture of rank and file police officers, whilst the use of authority has (see Skinns, 2011: 158).

However, the idea in the programme that custody officers are independent is simply not borne out by the evidence, which shows that custody officers tend to agree with their colleagues, for example, when it comes to authorizing a suspects' detention. Few custody officers reverse the decision of their colleague when a suspect arrives at the police station (Skinns, 2011: 4). This finding it not altogether surprising when one places it in the context of an understanding of the police occupational culture, a key aspect of which is solidarity.

Nonetheless, I remain open-minded about what other insights this programme might yield. Police custody as the key gateway to the criminal justice process deserves to be recognised as such by the wider public.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-12354714