‘Health & Safety Lead voices concern over single Custody Officer blocks’

4 March 2024

‘As the Federation’s health and safety lead, I am not comfortable at all with custody blocks being managed by one sergeant. It’s putting our members at unnecessary risk and is having an impact on their wellbeing,’ says Patrick McBrearty.

Patrick is calling for all custody blocks in the West Midlands to have two sergeants working a shift together, rather than one - which is becoming a common recurrence - or alternatively, to build a more resilient model whereby we have more locally trained sergeants available to assist, when necessary, as was the case pre austerity.

He says that he has known single sergeants to be in charge of up to 18 prisoners at one time, which in his opinion ‘is totally unacceptable’.

“There is a huge amount of pressure being put on our custody sergeants and they are being put at risk,” said Patrick.

“Our custody sergeants are crying out for support.”

Patrick explained that working alongside a custody sergeant is usually two detention escort officers. However, it is only the trained custody sergeant who is in a position to authorise the detention of a prisoner.

“Training takes three weeks and then the custody sergeant is required to shadow a colleague for two weeks,” added Patrick.

“But I don’t think five weeks of training and shadowing is enough time to prepare a person to face potentially risky situations as the lone decision maker.”

His concerns come after reports highlighted that the number of assaults on custody sergeants and other staff that have taken place in custody blocks has almost reached 100 in six months.

In addition, 190 reported incidents took place during that same time, of which included accidents and near-miss reports.

“The sad reality is that many of the prisoners being held in the custody blocks are either a risk to themselves or a risk to others. Some might be intoxicated, dependent on drugs or have mental health issues,” Patrick continued.

“It’s unrealistic to expect just one custody sergeant to be able to handle so many prisoners on their own. It 100 per cent should not be happening.”

As it stands there are two main custody superblocks, one at Oldbury and the other in Perry Barry, North Birmingham. In addition, there are four additional ‘satellite’ custody suites located around the region.

Custody sergeants and they are being put at risk,” said Patrick McBrearty.

“We’ve been made aware that the satellite custody suites have too regularly been staffed with just one custody sergeant working in each of them,” said Patrick.

“We are now working with the Force to find solutions that avoid having to close one of the suites, with the commensurate impact on policing in that area, and finding urgent short-term measures to support Sergeants who may be on their own. In the long term, we would like to see custody be absorbed into the Local Police Area (LPA) so that staff are supported more by a wider locally based team and can operate more efficiently according to the number of prisoners at any one time.

“While I appreciate this won’t eliminate the risks, it will reduce it and reduce the pressure, while increasing the support.”

Patrick also said that a risk assessment that took place in March 2023 highlighted a number of key areas of concern, including planning, low levels of resources and the ability to take timely breaks.

“Although some positive changes have been made - I believe those risks essentially remain the same,” explained Patrick.

“The break issue is another concern of mine. According to PACE [the Police and Criminal Evidence Act], there must be a custody sergeant on duty at all times - this means, that if there is just one trained custody sergeant on shift, they cannot take a break. However, according to the Working Time Regulations, officers have the right to take an uninterrupted - uninterrupted being key here - break of 20 minutes.

“The two don’t work together - PACE and the Working Time Regulations contradict one another if there is just one custody sergeant on shift.

“And the result of this is, that custody sergeants are unable to take adequate breaks - which is detrimental to their mental health and wellbeing, especially if they are doing multiple eight to 10-hour shifts back-to-back.”

Patrick reiterated that the branch is working closely with the Force to highlight and rectify these issues, and ‘that is positive, but that additional training of sufficient numbers of sergeants is vital’.

“In short, the issue is the number of custody sergeants available but to be honest, the entire custody system needs to be looked at,” he added, ending: “We need to train more custody sergeants and manage the suites more efficiently, which we believe is best done locally in the long term.”

If you are a custody sergeant who can relate to the above article and would like to share their experience, please email Patrick.