Deaths in police custody: recent and current cases

Special Meeting: Deaths in Custody
Report: 8
Date: 18 January 2002
By: Commissioner

Summary

The report identifies a number of high profile death in police custody cases and related issues.

A. Recommendations

That Members note the report and consider any issues arising.

B. Supporting information

The Metropolitan Police Service records all incidents that fall within the Home Office definition of a death in police custody. The definition is attached at Appendix A. Members should note that the definition of a death in police custody is currently subject to a Home Office review. The MPS have responded to the Home Office consultation paper.

The purpose of maintaining such a record is to meet the requirement to inform the Home Office within 48 hours of the death and to facilitate a referral of the investigation to the independent Police Complaints Authority. Statistics are also collated and published annually in the joint MPS/MPA Policing Plan.

Appendix B lists a number of deaths in police custody which are either unresolved or have outstanding issues of concern. The headings are broken down as follows:

• Date and time of death certified: This is the time the death is officially certified and may be sometime later than the originating incident.
• Borough and Name: Identifies the location of the incident and the name of the deceased.
• Age.
• Ethnic Origin.
• Gender.
• Cause of death and inquest verdict: As recorded at the inquest.
• Circumstances: Factual circumstances recorded as known at the time.
• Status: Current position of the case i.e. whether the case is still being investigated, or is awaiting inquest etc.
• Issues: Where specific issues have been identified.

Appendix B is confidential as it contains exempt information under the Access to Information provisions. It is therefore attached for Members of the Authority only.

This is the first time such information has been supplied in this format to members. It is intended to regularly update the table as appropriate.

C. Financial implications

None.

D. Background papers

None.

E. Contact details

Report author: D/Supt Bourlet, MPS.

For information contact:

MPA general: 020 7202 0202
Media enquiries: 020 7202 0217/18

Appendix A: Home Office definitions of death in Police custody or otherwise with the Police

Category A

Where the deceased is in police detention as defined by section 118 (2) of PACE 1984. That is, for the purpose of the act

• he has been taken to a police station after being arrested for an offence, or
• he is arrested at a police station after attending voluntarily at the station or accompanying a Constable to it,

and is detained there or is detained elsewhere in the charge of a constable, except that a person who is at a court after being charged is not in police detention for those purposes

This category also encompasses deaths of those under arrest who are held in temporary police accommodation or have been taken to hospital following arrest. It also includes those who die, following arrest, whilst in a police vehicle

Category B

Where the deceased was otherwise in the hands of the police or death resulted from the actions of a police officer in the purported execution of his duty.

This category includes, for example, deaths which occur:

• when suspects are being interviewed by the police but have not been detained
• when persons are actively attempting to evade arrest
• when persons are stopped and searched or questioned by the police
• when persons are in police vehicles (other than whilst in police detention)
• when persons are in police custody having been arrested by officers from a police force in Scotland exercising their powers of detention under section 137(2) of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994
• when persons are in police custody having been arrested under section 3(5) of the Asylum and Immigration Appeals Act 1993
• when persons are in police custody having been served a notice advising them of their detention under powers contained in the Immigration Act 1971.
• when persons are convicted or remanded prisoners held in police cells on behalf of the Prison Service under the Imprisonment (Temporary Provisions) Act 1980
• when there is a siege or ambush
• when persons are in the care of the police having been detained under the Mental Health Act, and
• when children or young persons are in police detention under the Children Act 1989

The two categories of deaths are designed to distinguish between deaths which occur when a person is detained by the Police and those which occur otherwise within the hands of the police.

The categories of death to be reported exclude:

• Those attending police stations as innocent visitors or witnesses who are not suspects and whose attendance is unconnected with their arrest.
• Those who have left a police station, whether freely or on bail (except when taken to hospital)
• Those involved in a fatal road traffic accident involving the police, and
• Those which occur in a police vehicle which is being used as an ambulance to transport a dying person to hospital quickly but not under circumstances as described under Category A

These lists of examples are not exhaustive.

Appendix B

Appendix B is an item discussed after the press and public have left the meeting. It is confidential as it contains exempt information under the Access to Information provisions. It is therefore for Members of the Authority only.

Send an e-mail linking to this page

Feedback