Death of healthy man in police custody - CCTV mysteriously goes missing...

[edam]

another death in police custody another fucked-up investigation by the IPCC.

Reminds me horribly of their pathetic initial lies about poor Mr Tomlinson at the G20 and failure to investigate until members of the public gave footage to the media.

What is the IPCC for exactly? Because they certainly ain't independent. And they don't actually investigate complaints.

quite. Can't imagine what his poor family are living through.

That is an unbearably sad news report to read. Hope his family get some answers and someone is held accountable for his death.

Whats his crime? Being a Schizophrenic? How sad.

Bloody hell!!! This is absolutely appauling. That poor man and his poor, poor family

Made me think of that other thread, where the poster had been alarmed by someone a bit odd on the canal bank, had left, but wanted to know whether to report the strange man to the police. Because apparently poor Sean Rigg was finally picked up after a member of the public reported someone 'acting strangely'.

It's a horrid thought that person who called the cops about Sean Rigg would have had no idea it would end up as a death in custody.

According to the IPCC there were 15 deaths in or following police custody in 08/09. Although given how useless the IPCC have been in this and other cases, you wonder quite how reliable their stats are.

Anyway, seems there were 13 men, two women, average age 40 but the youngest only 23. Three of the deaths were in people 'identified as having mental health needs'.

One poor soul was a long-term alcoholic who died of 'acute alcohol withdrawal'.

Worst death in Custody case here is Christopher Alder,ex para,black.Left bleeding to death

Even more horrors from that report - two people stopped breathing while being 'restrained' but were not under arrest or in custody, so not counted in those 15.

appalling. the poor man shouldn't have been in the criminal system anyway, presumably there were problems getting him into the mental health system?

Oh, the poor man was so in the system he was living in a hostel for people with mental health problems. Cops ignored several 999 calls from staff concerned about Mr Rigg's state, before he walked out of the hostel.

Poor poor man,how awful for his family. There are trials in some police stations that do have mental health nurses within the station,i am not sure how many but where i live this has been in place for a few years.

Surely cases like this prove that it should be nationwide.

Very sad.I think ever since "Care in the community" schemes were initiated things have gone downhill.Probably am old dinosaur.

Care in community a total misnomer imo

sorry badly put - what I was getting at was why was the 999 to police rather than ambulance service - presumably because police were seen as being able ?powers wise/resource wiseto take action to keep this man safe more promptly than if anyone tried to get him admitted to hospital?

I don't know, you'd think if he needed to be sectioned they'd have called SS or escalated within MH services. Maybe their procedure there is to call the cops, who knows? But whatever the reasons, there is no way a physically healthy man should have just dropped dead with no explanation.

God, not again. I'm losing all faith in the police.

Me too.

(Although I realise physically healthy men do drop dead from sudden heart attacks it is unusual at such a young age and would be especially unusual just as all the CCTV cameras mysteriously go down...)

Are lessons never learned? In Brixton too FFS!
This poor family. There has to be some proper independent investigation otherwise community relations will be set back by decades and ordinary Brixtonians will suffer.

Maybe they are giving Brixton nick a 70s retro theme? Or have been channelling too much Gene Hunt?

If there are any risks involved mental health services routinely have to involve the police. If someone is in a public place then the police are often the ones who have the first contact with the person.

I've done numerous mental health act assessments in police stations and in the area that I work in they have nurses in the custody suite. I don't know the exact circumstances of the case or this poor man's history but agree that its a tragedy. The police also have to be accountable for their actions.

Personally my experiences with the police in their handling of people with mental health problems have always been positive but then I work in a borough with a very progressive police force who also have specialist mental health liaison officers.

The poor man wasn't in a custody 'suite', he was in a metal cage in the yard.

Glad to hear your local force is progressive. Very unlike Brixton, from the sounds of it.

Its horrifying. A cage?

Sadly not all Police Forces are sensitive to the needs of people with MH issues (should re-phrase that actually)
Have met some Police Officers who were fantastic and showed great empathy. Others who treated the client as if they had been wiped off a show somewhere.
So perhaps its more to do with the personal beliefs and morals of the police officer (which is a bit alarming)

We recently encountered a police officer who told us that he had 'arrested' one of our patients under Sec 3 of MH Act, thought that we had our own 'Psychiatric ambulance' to convey the client to hospital, and perhaps the most worrying- thought that we would have arrived at the police station with a 'straightjacket'

With attitudes like that, no wonder people are being caged like wild animals and dying in custody.

I cant recall being so angry about a news report.

shoe not show

I know he wasn't in the custody 'suite'(not my term but thats the term thats used, rightly or wrongly). Just talking about my experience to give a bit of a wider perspective although maybe thats not want you want to hear.

I did say glad your force is progressive, what makes you think I didn't want to hear that? Put suite in quote marks as it's a bizarre term, but not blaming you personally for that, I know it's the phrase that is used.