European Journal of Policing Studies

Article

Police custody delivery in the twenty-first century in England and Wales

Current arrangements and their implications for patterns of policing

Keywords police, police custody, civilianization, privatization, patterns of policing
Authors Layla Skinns, Amy Sprawson, Angela Sorsby, Rivka Smith en Andrew Wooff
DOI
Author's information

Layla Skinns
Layla Skinns is a Reader in Criminology in the Centre for Criminological Research, School of Law University of Sheffield, having previously worked at Cambridge University and King’s College London. She is currently the Principal Investigator on a four-year national study of ‘good’ police custody, which is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (corresp: L.Skinns@sheffield.ac.uk).

Amy Sprawson
Amy Sprawson completed an MPhil in Criminological Research at the University of Cambridge in 2013 and was a Research Assistant on the ‘good’ police custody study (2014-16), based at the Centre for Criminological Research, School of Law, University of Sheffield.

Angela Sorsby
Angela Sorsby is a Lecturer in Criminology in the Centre for Criminological Research, School of Law, University of Sheffield, within which she has conducted research across a number of areas relating to crime and criminal justice. She currently principally teaches research methods and statistics and is involved in analysing the quantitative data from the ‘good’ police custody study.

Rivka Smith
Rivka Smith is currently a doctoral candidate in the Centre for Criminological Research, School of Law, University of Sheffield, researching mental health and policing. In 2016, she worked as a Research Assistant on the ‘good’ police custody study and before that she completed a Master’s degree by research at Canterbury Christ Church University in the subject area of Policing.

Andrew Wooff
Andrew Wooff completed his PhD at the University of Dundee in 2014, after which he worked as a Research Associate on the ‘good’ police custody study, based at the Centre for Criminological Research, School of Law, University of Sheffield. He commenced a Lectureship in Criminology at Edinburgh Napier University in 2015.
  • Abstract

      Since the 1980s, police custody in England and Wales has experienced civilianization and privatization of roles once performed by the police. The purposes of this paper are to explore these organisational arrangements and to reflect on what they reveal about patterns of policing in the 21st century. These matters are examined using a unique 2014 survey of custody managers who provided data on 213 suites across 41 police forces in England and Wales, and the Isle of Man. Findings are presented on the extent of civilianization and privatization of custody suites, the conditions of the suites in terms of their busyness and whether they were seen as ‘fit for purpose’ by staff, as well as on the most common types of custody suites and their features. These findings show that whilst civilianization was common-place, privatization was not; over two-thirds of custody suites were owned, managed and staffed by police officers or civilian detention officers employed by the police. As such, the research does not support the idea that there has been a transformation of policing, at least not with respect to who owns, manages and/or staffs custody suites in England and Wales, where the police still have a monopoly.

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