POLICE Custody Officers are struggling with low morale with many saying they want to be deployed elsewhere in policing \u2018as soon as possible\u2019.<\/p>\n
A recent PFEW survey showed the role is seen as the \u2018worst in policing\u2019 and that 1 in 4 want out of the job. The national picture is mirrored in Essex, according to Essex Police Federation Chairman Steve Taylor.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a problem in Essex, it\u2019s something we are struggling with,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have an ageing estate with doesn\u2019t help and arguably we have too many suites and not enough staff.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe shift pattern that Custody Officers work isn\u2019t ideal and morale has consequently suffered. And it\u2019s arguably one of the most regulated parts of the business, it\u2019s one of the most critical parts.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf it goes wrong, your custody falls over, it effects everything.\u201d<\/p>\n
Looking after detainees who may have physical and\/or mental health issues can also add further strain to stretched teams, Steve added.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can go to hospital with a medical condition which is life threatening and you can spend time there and unfortunately you can die.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can come into custody with a medical condition we can treat, which we\u2019re aware of, we can take steps around, and unfortunately you can die.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut only in our situation is there an independent body which comes and reviews everything that we\u2019ve done. It doesn\u2019t happen in the NHS and yet it does to us.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, there\u2019s a real risk to individuals, to the organisation, to all concerned, the confidence in police. Arguably, it\u2019s unreasonable and it\u2019s not fair for custody to shoulder that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Steve often works shifts in the department himself and has seen the issues up close.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was in custody recently and there was a juvenile who had been remanded on a Saturday morning so she could potentially have spent all weekend in the custody suites unless we got her to the court that morning.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, officers at Southend were running around trying to pull together the paperwork to make this happen, only to be told that the support staff that work in the CJU had gone home.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe could physically get her to court, we had the time, but the court wouldn\u2019t take them because of this arbitrary process and there wasn\u2019t someone there to copy a file, to do a bit of a Q and A.<\/p>\n
\u201cConsequently, a juvenile spent the weekend in the custody suite – it doesn\u2019t help.\u201d<\/p>\n
Money also needs to be invested in custody infrastructure in the county, he added.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe facilities are aged, they need bringing up to date and need money which, as a force, we don\u2019t have.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re talking seven figure sums and we respect the fact that money has to be released from other areas to address this.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve asked the resourcing issue is considered and for a shift move.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve worked hard, we\u2019ve presented some papers, we\u2019ve put some options on the table and the organisation have decided they don\u2019t want to do things piecemeal,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat\u2019s the point of rearranging the custody structure for seven custody suites when we\u2019re looking to move towards a fewer number and therefore we might not need to make the changes that we propose. The medium-term option is the resourcing.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe organisation has decided the timing\u2019s not right for that and the short-term plan is to put more Sergeants in custody but where do you get them from?<\/p>\n
\u201cIn custody, you can\u2019t act up temporarily, you need to be substantive \u2013 we have trained, substantive Sergeants whose day jobs are out on division and so on a daily basis they might get told at the 11th<\/sup> hour, \u2018You\u2019re not working in Clacton today on your response shift, you\u2019re coming to Colchester to work as a custody Sergeant\u2019,\u201d Steve explained.<\/p>\n \u201cThe pool of cohort Sergeants is very, very small and they have day jobs which then suffer, so it\u2019s a double hit,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cThey don\u2019t want to go to custody, they have to go to custody and their day job suffers\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" POLICE Custody Officers are struggling with low morale with many saying they want to be deployed elsewhere in policing \u2018as soon as possible\u2019. A recent PFEW survey showed the role\u2026 read more →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3281,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4715"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4715"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4715\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4716,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4715\/revisions\/4716"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3281"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}