The new Newbury Custody Suite

Judy Blake, together with Glenn Ashby, has been responsible for implementing the Custody refurbishment programme on behalf of West Berkshire Basic Command Unit.
Custodial Review last spoke to Judy when the High Wycombe project was completed.

I believe this is the penultimate custody suite to be developed, leaving only Milton Keynes to do. So how many units have been completed now and where are they?

Judy Blake We have delivered most of the projects now. They include Banbury, Slough, Maidenhead, Loddon Valley, Aylesbury and High Wycombe, so that makes Newbury number seven!  We are on site at Abingdon and still have Reading, Oxford and Milton Keynes to do.

I have lost count and after a while they all seem to look the same. Is that deliberate?

Judy Blake That is part of the intention! We are trying to have a generic specification and uniformity of delivery. Part of the reason for this, is so that the civilian jailers, all of whom are provided by Reliance, can move between one custody suite to another and that they can work in familiar surroundings, with familiar equipment and strategies. Because we have created a uniformity of surroundings and equipment, this makes maintenance and any future upgrades more simple to carry out.

Let us talk more specifically about the facility that has been built here. I've already discussed with Judith Johnson, the reason we have a 14-cell suite here, when all but one of the other four gold standard suites have 30 cells or more. Can you tell me what changes in specification have been made at Newbury, compared with the previous six completed projects?

In practice, how will this actually work?

Judy Blake At the beginning of their shift, a member of the custody staff will swipe their identification fob on the front of the Traka box, a secure key safe. When the system identifies them, it will direct them to take a particular key fob from the safe. The key is then that person's responsibility for the rest of their shift. So, in the unfortunate event of an incident in custody, we will know who had the key fob from the Traka system. We will also know when and how long the door was locked and activated and the CCTV will give us images of exactly what happened. Should the incident take place in the corridor, we will have the sound as well.

What system will be in place to physically stop one member of staff leaving his key on the bench, lending it to somebody else, or just dropping it? This would seem to be an obvious flaw in the system?

Judy Blake We will issue key chains similar to the ones that prison officers use. As staff will clearly have responsibility for a particular key during their shift, it is in their best interest not to lend it to anybody else. Should something happen and that key is identified as the one that opened a cell door, that member of staff could therefore be deemed to be responsible for whatever occurred.

Over the years that I've been coming to see your new custody suites, I have noticed that an idea rarely fails to be developed. What future developments can you see with the Traka system?

Judy Blake Traka has the ability to be expanded considerably! There is a facility  that,  should you walk out of the door with the fob in your pocket at the end of your shift, the system will create an alarm. This should reduce the incidence of keys and key fobs which go missing because staff have forgotten to return them at the end of their shift. Initially, we will program the system so that if the key is not returned at the end of a 12 hour shift, an e-mail is sent to the shift manager, they will then investigate the reason. As the key is electronic it could then be deactivated if required. We can see this changing and developing over time. We are the first organisation to use a tracking system in this way and so we are acting as guinea pigs.  We will establish protocols over time. It seems incredible that keys to custody suites do not have some form of electronic tagging audits on them, when you consider the responsibility that goes with holding such a key.

When will this be installed and be up and running?

Judy Blake They are installing the box in early December. It's a shame it was not up and running when the custody suite was finished, but this was just not possible.

Let's talk about how the new technology that was installed at High Wycombe and now been installed here at Newbury has performed. The Chubb system comes to mind... Has it performed as well as its design brief said it would?  Have there been any problems at all with the system?

Judy Blake The Chubb system has performed exactly to its design specifications and we have not had one fault on it. Custody staff have found it to be very user-friendly and uncomplicated and we are very pleased with it. There has been a lot of interest generated in the system and quite a few Police Forces who are upgrading their custody units, have come to look at it. We're still evaluating the system, gathering data on its operational effectiveness and the money that it saves to date.  It has delivered everything we expected it to. We have had an incident which would normally have involved changing all the locks in the custody suite. However, because of the electronic system, we were able to de-activate the missing fob almost immediately and the reset the system. The cost savings and savings in time were considerable and also the savings brought about by the custody suite not being taken out of use.

What are the benefits do you hope will flow from the Traka system and making custody staff personally responsible for their custody key?

Judy Blake We think it is essential that staff realise just how important their job is and just what responsibility they have for those people in their care. We hope that by recording and allocating a key to a particular person, will help to instil in them just how vital a function they are carrying out. This has been brought into sharp relief with the stated intention requirements.  It is simply not good enough not to look after detainees in the best possible way.

Can we talk about the temporary custody suite I saw the last time I visited.  I believe it closed five days ago and there hasn't been a custody suite on this site for that period of time? Just how good was the temporary custody suite that Wernick provided?

Judy Blake All the equipment in the temporary suite had to be moved into this new suite and it took three working days for this to occur. All the electronic equipment, telephones, radios, computers, the electronic fingerprinting machine, the photography equipment, the Intoximeter, etc, all had to be moved. So we closed the custody facility here and for those five days, we have utilised custody capacity nearby. The contract stated that we had to return the temporary custody facility to Wernick in the condition it was received. This will be achieved on time and Wernick are arriving in a couple of days to separate the custody suite into its constituent parts and to crane it out of here. We were very pleased with the way the suite was able to fulfil our needs, considering the restrictions placed upon it and the space available. The major reason that it was so successful was, I feel, the attention to our requirements that Wernick showed. Once installed, there were hardly any matters we had to speak to Wernick about and those were all very minor. For instance, we had a small drainage problem, that was responsible for an ambient smell in the warmer weather. Once notified, Wernick remedied the problem immediately. The removal of the units is another example. We told them the date they will be available to be taken away and Wernick did all the work required to do so, which involves getting wide vehicles in here and closing the road down temporarily.

Can I ask you to sum up what you feel you have delivered to the police here at Newbury?

Judy Blake Once again, we have delivered a very low maintenance, very high quality and very advanced custody suite. Everything is very robust and everything is as simple to operate as it can be. All the paint is capable of being wiped down and all the corners have corner protectors on them. Staff and Detainee comfort and security have been incorporated in the design.
We have one other piece of technology that we would like to introduce, and that is the Metrasens metal detectors, which you saw installed in High Wycombe. They were on loan to us and we are carrying out a pilot project with them. We are putting together a business case for installing them throughout this police force.

Judy thank you very much for talking to the Custodial Review once again.