Police detain 11 year of girl with a neurological disability

[davidball]

From the BBC today.

An 11-year-old girl with a neurological disability was handcuffed and restrained with a mesh hood and leg straps while being held in custody.

The child was arrested, handcuffed and hooded by Sussex Police for minor offences. If that was not bad enough she was held for 60 hours without an appropriate adult. Can you imagine how terrifying that must have been for her.

Has any police officer been punished for these assaults on her.

Two retired (with full pension?) No change to normal disciplinary procedures there then.

“Management action” was taken against six custody sergeants. It would be interesting to know what that means.

The two officers who restrained the girl with handcuffs have been disciplined. No doubt the slap on the wrist did not hurt as much as the forcible cuffing did.

Another custody sergeant was disciplined for not informing an appropriate adult in a timely manner.

Three other officers had no further action taken against them. Does that suggest that some action had already been taken against them?

Are the details of the disciplinary action taken against all these officers a state secret or will we get to know what, if any, punishment has been metered out to them?

Do not hold your breath.

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-sussex-36472234

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-36483552

Edited by davidball on Wednesday 8th June 17:27

[davidball]

jamesson said:

Do tell us your experiences in dealing with violent children with mental health issues. I'd love to know how you would have handled this.

Obviously your run of the mill police officer is neither trained nor able to deal with a child like this and proper medical and psychological professionals should have been informed immediately. Torturing the child with handcuffs applied with arms behind her back, leg restraints and a hood was never going to calm the girl down. They failed miserably in their duty of care to the girl. The abysmal minimal disciplinary action taken against these officers shows that the Hillsborough syndrome of disregard for natural justice is still rampant in some police forces.

[davidball]

rxe said:

One does wonder where the outraged mother was for this large number of hours.

If I had a mentally ill child who wasn't at home for the night, I'd be down the local cop shop sharpish. In fact, I probably would let the child out on its own if it was such a liability.

I agree entirely. If my handicapped child was held by the police in such circumstances I would have a lawyer with me at the police station within the hour raising all kinds of hell.

[davidball]

singlecoil said:

The BBC feasted on this story on the lunchtime news. I should have realised then that David would be keen to make his views on the police known (as if they weren't well known enough already).

I am not surprised that one of the usual apologists for police misconduct has woken up.

[davidball]

Elroy Blue said:

I was waiting for one of the usual suspects to pick this up. Highly predictable.

Can you show me in that report where there is any mention of mental health services, the NHS, ambulance, social services. There isn't. Because as usual they say bks, nothing to do with us. I've had our wonderful mental health unit slam the door in my face because a kid was 'aggressive'. Stood there thinking "now what?"

She was in the cells because her parents and every other 'specialist' washed their hands of her and expected the Police to magically solve the situation.

So Mr 'David ACAB' Ball. Please do offer your solution in dealing with a violent, aggressive individual who is constantly spitting in your face and constantly attacking you. Not for five minutes or thirty minutes, for hour, after hour, after hour. Please do share your expertise. We're all dying to know

Having spent some time studying and working with such patients as part of my psychology degree I can state with certainty that using such force on them is counter productive.

As for your ACAB slur. It is of no consequence. I firmly believe you can only be offended by the opinions of people you respect.

[davidball]

singlecoil said:

Well, I'm not surprised you would see it that way.

I am proud to speak up on behalf on the police whenever I see them being unfairly treated by know-it-all police hating types like you.

Your infantile insults are also of no consequence. As I told Elroy Blue. I firmly believe you can only be offended by the opinions of people you respect.

[davidball]

bhstewie said:

As I said on the thread in NP&E if you put aside the moral outrage is there a significant difference between a couple of Police Officers holding her vs. using cuffs and other restraints?

Seems the Police are expected to take on the role of the social services and mental health workers.

Where were they and the parents whilst this was happening?

I agree with you. The reasons why the police have to deal with these situations goes back to the "Care in the Community" debacle and the closure of many hospitals staffed by professionals trained to deal with people suffering psychological trauma. The police are victims of government policy and should get their super-rich federation to throw some money lobbying to get the hospital closures reversed or employ their own on-call practicing psychologists and psychiatrists like they do doctors.

[davidball]

jamesson,

Thank you for your informative post. Before I embark on a detailed response can you answer a question. Do police forces have on-call psychologists or psychiatrists who are contracted to respond to requests for assistance or do you have to rely on social services?

[davidball]

Given that the NHS is in crisis itself I suspect the time frame for attendance is a lottery.

More questions.

Is there still accelerated promotion in the force for university graduates?
How many graduates does the force attract?
How many have studied psychology, better still psychopathology?

I do not know if this information is available but I will be surprised if many psychology graduates consider the police as a career opportunity.

Do police stations no longer have padded cells?

Edited by davidball on Wednesday 8th June 19:21

[davidball]

I am surprised that you do not have standing orders relating to the management of such patients that detail best practices, for that is essentially what you are asking me to supply. It will require some thought.

[davidball]

Elroy Blue said:

Just bizarre.

Explain.

[davidball]

TVR1 said:

Well, you're not exactly going to go into a detailed response, are you? Simply because you are a fantasist. With no education of the subject nor any experience in dealing with mentally disturbed individuals.

Unfortunately for you, the generally accepted procedure when a disturbed person turns violent is;

Protect yourself. (Restrain them)

Protect them from themselves. (Keep them restrained)

Call for help.

If no help forthcoming, keep them protected. (Keep them restrained)

In practice, that's how it is.

You are the worst kind of troller. Narcissism at its best. I see you buddy, so perhaps best leave it there.

TVR1. BA (Hons) Crim Just/Behavoural Phsycology. (Yep, I did Stuff before the car trade)

Saddened that a BA Hons graduate is so dismissive but my BSc (Hons) in Psychology covered that ground too. For those with an open mind and not apt to descend to name calling I recommend http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC329820...

It contains a lot of insights and information that TVR1 really should read.

Have not found any UK based articles as good yet but I have not been looking for long.

[davidball]

TVR1 said:

How did your BSc cover that? Not even going to bother responding to a report from 10 years ago. You can't even be bothered to Google properly?

I've just made that procedure up BTW.

Mirror achievements and raise them?

Good try.

I would say stick to the car trade but your use of TVR as an alias makes me question your judgement. TVRs are a collectors car. You drive along the road and then go back and collect the bits that have fallen off. Assuming the crappy electrics allow you to start them in the first place.

Still no one has pointed to any research more recent than the Richmond et al paper.

Edited by TVR1 on Wednesday 8th June 23:07

[davidball]

Fortunately there have been some thoughtful and constructive posts.

To those serving police officers. You chose the police force, no-one conscripted you. As for the bhing about the NHS, an organization dangerously overstretched, chronically underfunded and considerably less protected than you are. Get over it.

It is the lack of leadership by your superiors and their political masters that have stuck you between a rock and a hard place.