Independent Police Complaints Commission
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Gross misconduct against five officers /police staff proven after IPCC investigates Hull custody incident

An IPCC investigation into an incident in which a man with broken legs was strip searched and left naked in a cell for five hours, has led to disciplinary proceedings against several Humberside Police officers and staff, along with recommendations for improving detainee handling in custody.

The IPCC independently investigated the circumstances surrounding the arrest of a 49-year-old man in Hull on 13 February, 2014 and his detention at Clough Road police station. The IPCC’s investigator expressed the view that there was a case to answer for the way the man had been treated by some police and detention officers.

The man, who spoke little English, was taken in a police van after being arrested. No action was subsequently taken against him after it was discovered the allegation was a false report.

On arrival at the police station a nurse assessed him while he still in the police van and before he was brought into the custody suite. Despite having leg injuries, and despite him pleading and showing signs of distress when being moved, he was dragged into the custody suite area. 

A strip search was authorised, although the procedure to be carried out was not properly explained to the man, and he was then left naked in a cell. The man’s requests for medical attention were ignored before an inspector carrying out a custody review summoned a doctor and an ambulance was called for. In hospital he was found to have fractures to both legs.

Humberside Police disciplinary hearings found that the two arresting PCs, Edmund Richardson and Kevin Dodgson, who dragged the man into the custody suite, had not shown an appropriate level of concern or treated him with courtesy and respect, and that an appropriate continuous risk assessment had not been carried out.

Two police sergeants, David Beer and Nicholas Hunt, who were responsible for the man’s safe detention, were found by the disciplinary panel to have failed to obtain medical care for him and to have either taken or allowed a haphazard approach to the strip search and seizure of clothing.

Another hearing found that a member of police staff, the detention officer who booked the man into custody, had failed to treat him with courtesy and respect. All four police officers received final written warnings. The detention officer also received a final written warning but has appealed against the outcome.

In addition two detention officers (also police staff) were given verbal warnings by the force while another will be subject to management action.

Following learning recommendations highlighted by the IPCC investigation Humberside Police agreed to start assigning a designated custody officer to each detainee, avoiding a situation where two officers might assume the other was responsible for an individual’s care. A separate recommendation sought to ensure alternative wear such as tracksuits, rather than the approved paper suit provided, should be available if a detainee’s clothing is seized.

IPCC Commissioner Carl Gumsley said: “Following a thorough and independent investigation by the IPCC, the disciplinary process has clearly found that this man was treated in a wholly unacceptable way whilst he was detained at Clough Road police station. It is important that such matters do not go unchallenged and that those who are responsible are properly held to account.”

 

Channel website: https://policeconduct.gov.uk/

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