'Good' police custody: Influencing police custody policy and practice

Project start date: May 2024
Project end date: April 2025
Principal Researcher: Professor Layla Skinns

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Summary:

This project developed, piloted and evaluated the impacts of accessible police custody information guides for adult suspects, in order to improve suspect understanding and autonomous decision making and police custody practices in Norfolk and Suffolk Police.

Project partners:

Norfolk Police, Suffolk Police, AV Studios, Creased Puddle

Aims:

The main aim of this project was to develop accessible digital and paper-based information guides for adult suspects in police custody and to implement them in Norfolk/Suffolk Police, making use of their pioneering video technology in the cells. These information guides contain critical information about detainees’ rights and entitlements and the treatment they should expect from staff. They were intended to help suspects to better understand their rights and to support more effective autonomous decision making. 

A proof of concept was established by piloting the information guides in two police custody facilities and evaluating their perceived effects on detainees and staff. A report of this evaluation can be found below, as can the information guides so that they may be rolled out more widely across England and Wales as other police forces begin to adopt technology which supports their delivery such as tablets or video screens in the cells.

Background:

This project draws on Phase 5 of the ‘good’ police custody study, entitled ‘Influencing policy custody policy and practice’. In this project, we piloted recommendations from a major ESRC-funded project, the ‘good’ police custody study (GPCS), in three police force areas. One of the measures piloted was a paper-based custody information guide for adult suspects, which proved to be one of the most popular measures implemented.

This measure was introduced because a key finding in the underpinning research undertaken in the GPCS is the importance of detainee dignity rooted in autonomy (Skinns, 2019; Skinns et al., 2021). By providing suspects with information about the police custody process, this enables suspects to make informed and autonomous choices about their stay in police custody and about their key rights and entitlements. This information guide was also introduced because, though suspects are permitted to read about their rights and entitlements in the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 Code of Practice C, the information contained there is dense and inaccessible for some detainees (e.g. due to learning disabilities, neurodivergent conditions such as ADHD and autism, or mental ill-health).

Building on the underpinning research generated by the GPCS and this previous IAA-funded project, the present project piloted a digital and updated paper-based version of the information guide used in 2019-21. These information guides were developed to be more accessible for a range of detainees. Both were developed in conjunction with accessibility consultants, Creased Puddle, as well as with Norfolk/Suffolk Police, those with lived experience of police custody and a creative team from Alternative View Studios.

Evaluation methods:

The evaluation involved a mixed-methods design, exploring both the process of implementing the digital information guide and its effects on detainees and staff. For suspects, we examined their impact on their knowledge about their rights and entitlements and their decision-making, and for staff we  examined their attitudes towards and perceptions of the information guides.

In each of the two police custody facilities in the research (one in Norfolk and one in Suffolk Police), the research team observed over a 4-week period and conducted interviews with staff and suspects. Staff also collected quantitative data on whether and why suspects engaged with the information guides.

Key findings:

  • The information guides were typically offered on an opt in not out basis, based also on perceived ‘suitability’ i.e. first-timers, vulnerable suspects, those unfamiliar with custody, not regulars, intoxicated or aggressive suspects.
  • The information guides were perceived as informative, clear, concise, and appropriate in their content, and accessible, simple to understand, jargon-free, suitable for a wide audience, including those with additional needs.
  • Suspects who engaged with the animations did so because they were interested to know about their rights and entitlements, and to alleviate boredom.
  • The information guides were perceived to improve suspect understandings of police custody processes, the journey through custody, and rights and entitlements, some of which they were unable to take in on arrival. They were also perceived to enable better autonomous decision making for suspects about legal advice, Appropriate Adults and Liaison and Diversion.
  • The evaluation established a proof of concept. Staff and suspects expressed clear support for continued use of the information guides, particularly for first timers, vulnerable suspects or those less familiar with custody.

Reports:

Summary report

Full report

Project animations:

We would love for you to download the videos and use them. However, we ask that you contact Layla Skinns at l.skinns@sheffield.ac.uk to let her know that you are downloading the videos and how you intend to use them. This will support us in our evaluation of the project.

1. Your time in police custody and your treatment

2. Your rights and entitlements

3. Your welfare and wellbeing

4. Your safety and security

Download our project leaflet

Romanian subtitled videos

1. Your time in police custody and your treatment

2. Your rights and entitlements

3. Your welfare and wellbeing

4. Your safety and security

Romanian leaflet.

Publications (freely available online)

Research Team (2013-present)

  • Principal investigator: Professor Layla Skinns (2013-present)
  • Statistician: Dr Angela Sorsby (2015-present)
  • Research Associate: Lexine Smyth (October 2024 to April 2025)
  • Research Assistant: Rivka Smith (June to December 2021; April to August 2016)
  • Research Assistant: Dr Rebecca Banwell-Moore (Feb 2020 – September 2020)
  • Research Assistant: Dr Lindsey Rice (2016-2017)
  • Research Assistant: Amy Sprawson (Feb 2014- March 2016)
  • Research Associate: Dr Andrew Wooff (Feb 2014 – July 2015)
  • Fieldworkers in 2016 and 2017: Claire Kershaw, Dr Dermott Barr, Dr Amal Ali

Research funding (2013-present)

  • September 2013 – August 2018: “’Good’ Police Custody: Theorizing the ‘is’ and the ‘ought’”, ESRC research grant ES/JO23434/1 (£518,508).
  • May 2024-April 2025: ‘Encouraging detainee dignity: A pilot and evaluation of a digital information guide to police custody for adult detainees in two police force areas’, ESRC Impact Acceleration Funding/Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Sheffield (£39,042).
  • September 2019-December 2021: ‘Good’ police custody: influencing policy and practice, ESRC Impact Acceleration Funding/Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Sheffield (£38,071). (View more details here)
  • January 2018 – July 2019: The ‘good’ police custody study, ESRC Impact Acceleration Funding/Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Sheffield (£24, 168).
  • February – July 2020: Theatre production and animation costs, ad hoc funding from the School of Law, University of Sheffield, Public Engagement Team and Impact Team (£17,949).

Phase 5 of the ‘good’ police custody study: Influencing policy and practice

View more

Research Context

Between 2013 and 2018, a research team collected a range of data, as part of an ESRC-funded “'Good' police custody? Theorizing the 'is' and the 'ought'”, hereafter referred to as the GPCS. The primary aim of the research was to robustly examine what is meant by ‘good’ police custody. These data have been used to explore preliminary ideas about good police custody (Skinns et al., 2015) and the importance of detainee dignity (Skinns et al., 2020), the delivery of police custody (Skinns et al., 2017a), staff-detainee interactions and the use of ‘soft’ power (Skinns et al., 2017b), detainees’ emotional reactions to police custody (Wooff and Skinns, 2017), the pains of police detention (Skinns and Wooff, 2020), as well as police-academic partnerships during research on police custody (Greene and Skinns, 2017) and the use of appreciative inquiry in police custody research (Skinns et al, forthcoming). Please see our dignity in justice page and publications which are freely available online. This research was the basis for an impact case study for REF 2021.

In Phase 3 of the research, in 2016-17, the research team surveyed nearly 800 staff and detainees in 27 custody facilities in 13 police forces. These data were used in Phase 4 of the research to formulate good practice recommendations, which were launched in October 2019. It was recommended that dignity - linked to equal worth, autonomy and decency - should be priorities that police custody practitioners, managers, national leads and policy makers should take account of in relation to the operation and strategic direction of police custody, alongside existing priorities such as safety, security, risk, cost effectiveness and the demands of the law and the criminal justice process. It was also recognised that such changes may yield benefits for detainees and for staff, through increased detainee cooperation, for example. In pursuit of these goals, it was recommended that changes be made to police attitudes and behaviours; policies, training and line management procedures; detainee expectations; and the material conditions of police custody.

From September 2019-July 2022, work was undertaken on Phase 5 of the GPCS, in which the research team facilitated the implementation of these recommendations in three police forces, who volunteered to take part. The two main aims of this project were to:

1. Facilitate the implementation of the good practice recommendations derived from the good police custody in up to six police force areas (though this aim had to be scaled back to a smaller number of forces due to the effects of Covid-19);

2. Evaluate the impact of the uptake of these recommendations on police officers’ experiences, and on their attitudes and behaviours towards detainees, as well as on the experiences of detainees.

This phase of research was therefore concerned with making changes to police custody practices and to the experiences of detainees, and to measure the extent of this impact and the process by which this impact came about. These changes were based on good practice recommendations from the GPCS.

This Phase 5 implementation and evaluation work was divided in two parts, with Force A taking part in Phase 5a and Forces B and C taking part in Phase 5b.

The report for Force A and Phase 5a can be found here

The report for Forces B/C and Phase 5b can be found here

Research Methodology 

In Phase 5 of the GPCS, the custody suite in which the measures were being implemented was compared before and after implementing the recommendations from the research with a comparator site, where no measures were implemented. The research was conducted in four stages to fit around the implementation work, as follows: 

Stage 1: Pre-implementation quantitative survey of staff and detainees in the test and comparator sites;  Stage 2: Brief staff survey using open and closed questions in test site and comparator site in response to ‘I am Human’ animation, which was used to create a good practice examples sheet; Implementation work in test site; Stage 3: Process evaluation in the test site, involving semi-structured interviews with staff and detainees and participant observation;

Enable routine access to various material goods (e.g. reading and writing materials, other distraction box items, blankets, food and drinks, range of clothing)

During the implementation stage, staff were asked to give greater overall emphasis to detainee dignity in all that they did, recognising that every interaction matters. In particular, staff were asked to:

Adopt a new handover sheet with dignity as a standing item. Offer custody information sheets to all detainees, and to display custody information posters in the custody suite in places where detainees were likely to spend time looking at them e.g. in the holding area, consultation rooms, fingerprint rooms. Make use of a good practice examples sheet to guide their day-to-day practices and their discussions during handover. This sheet was developed from the Stage 2 survey, in order to give staff a sense of ownership over the project. Give greater consideration to dignity in decisions about the keeping of personal effects, risk assessments permitting (Staff were to discuss these decisions with managers if they were unsure)

  • Stage 4: Post-implementation quantitative survey of staff and detainees in the test and comparator sites.

Page last updated in July 2025.

Further information

For further information about this project please email Dr Layla Skinns (L.Skinns@sheffield.ac.uk).

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