Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) published a report last week on the welfare of vulnerable people in custody. Among other things, the report concluded that vulnerable children “need care, not custody”. It found that in encounters between children and the police, “some police officers did not regard all children as vulnerable. They saw the offence first and the fact that a child was involved as secondary.”
The HMIC report also looked at the transfer of arrested children to local authority accommodation. It reported that, in the areas from which it received data, not a single child was given a local authority bed in the 12 months prior to the 2014 inspection, despite requests being made by the police.
Other areas highlighted by HMIC relating to children include:
Treatment of children in the police station
The HMIC report recognises that “children who were charged with a crime did not always fully understand the nature of the alleged offence due to the technical language used by officers” [page 106] and that many of those detained were uncertain of “their rights and entitlements [and this] caused anxiety and stress for participants who were entering custody for the first time. It also inhibited some children from asking for entitlements, such as a blanket, while detained” [page 181]
Strip Search
The HMIC report highlights that not only is the use of strip search by police increasing, but also that it is being used disproportionately against black and ethnic minority children.