Injuries in Police custody (FOI)

Request

Please provide responses for the below questions:

Definition of prisoners is what the Police call a member of the public who has been arrested.

A

In total, please list how many prisoners have been injured in police custody in 2015 and 2016, the type of injury and location within custody?

B

How many prisoners have been injured during transport from the scene of a crime to the station in the back of a van?

C

In total, please list how many Police Officers have been injured in police custody in 2015 and 2016 and the type of injury and location within custody?

D

How many times during 2016 was an ambulance requested to attend the police station due to injuries for either prisoners or Police Officers?

E

What is the estimated cost of keeping a prisoner in the police cells for each 24 hour period, this should be a rough estimate as it's impossible to provide an exact figure?

F

During 2015 and 2016, how many prisoners were deemed a risk to themselves and required constant monitoring by a police officer?

G

For as long as can be researched, what is the longest time an individual has been in police custody at the Rouge Bullion Police HQ for one continuous visit? If possible, please list the types of offences they'd been arrested for?

H

What is the approximate cost of calling the doctor to police custody? Is this charged per hour or per visit?

Please list variations of costs depending on the time / dates, how many times in 2016 was a doctor requested to visit police custody and the overall cost?

Response

A

Any alleged assault on a prisoner would be recorded as such. There are no records of assaults on any prisoner in police custody for the period requested. The custody area of the police station is extensively covered by CCTV cameras and any incidents would be recorded.

B

As per response A above, no allegations of assault in the back of a police van have been recorded. On most occasions, the prisoner travels alone in the cage of the police van. Only rarely will an officer join the prisoner in cases where the prisoner is deemed to be vulnerable or incapable of looking after themselves.

C

There have been five recorded assaults against police officers in 2015 and eight in 2016. The assaults ranged from kicks and biting, to punches and spitting. These occurred in the interview room, custody desk or the cell block.

D

Only one ambulance was called to assist a prisoner who appeared to be in some medical distress. He was taken to Accident and Emergency (A&E) and released into police custody one hour later.

E

This information is not held.

F

Information unable to be recovered within the time limits allowed. See exemptions below.

G

The maximum period a person has been detained without charge is 87 hours. The period of detention is reviewed at regular intervals and regulated by the Police Procedures and Criminal Evidence (Codes of Practice) (Jersey) Order 2004. Any detention over 24 hours prior to charge must be authorised by an officer of the rank of Chief Inspector or above and must be reviewed at least every 12 hours. The offence must be a serious offence. The offences where the detention reached this length of time before charge included, grave and criminal assault and importation of drugs.

H

Fees for the call out of Force Medical Examiners (FME’s) are subject of a contract between the police and the FME. It is not possible to say how many times a doctor was called to the custody suite within the time limits allowed.

The contract between the Police and FME’s has a confidentiality clause which prohibits the disclosure by any party of details obtained during the contact and details of the contract. This information is an absolute exemption under Article 26 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011.

Exemptions and / or refusals applied to this request

Article 26 - Information supplied in confidence

Information is absolutely exempt information if –

(a) it was obtained by the scheduled public authority from another person (including another public authority); and

(b) the disclosure of the information to the public by the scheduled public authority holding it would constitute a breach of confidence actionable by that or any other person.

Freedom of Information (Costs) (Jersey) Regulations 2014

If the estimated cost of supplying the information would exceed the specified limit (£500 or 12.5 hours work) the scheduled authority may refuse to supply the information.

In this case, the States of Jersey police have decided it would be in the public interest to answer the parts of the question that can be completed within the time limits allowed. Questions not answered exceed the £500 limit to locate and extract the information from the documents containing it.

To answer question F would require a manual examination of each custody record (well over 5000) to see if the prisoner was deemed to be a risk to themselves.