Met aims to prevent custody deaths

A video is part of new training for Met police officers

Measures to cut the number of deaths in custody have been unveiled by the Metropolitan Police.

A pilot project employing nurses in the custody suite at Charing Cross police station will run for six months starting later this year.

The pilot has been announced five years after the British Medical Association called for such a scheme to be set up to reduce deaths.

Pressure groups such as Inquest, which works with the families of those who have died in custody, have also called for such initiatives.

Joy Gardner died in police custody in 1993

From later this month there will also be new training to help officers deal with medical emergencies.

Many of the most controversial deaths in custody involving police restraint have involved people from ethnic minorities.

The cases of Joy Gardner, Brian Douglas, Wayne Douglas, Ibrahima Sey and Roger Sylvester have kept the profile of the race issue high.

Fewer deaths

The new initiatives were welcomed by Nicholas Long, a member of the Metropolitan Police Authority who chaired a working group investigating deaths in custody.

"The provision of nurses is of particular benefit to the many vunerable people who pass through custody suites," he said.

The measures were unveiled in the wake of a drop in the number of deaths in custody in the Metropolitan police district.

There have been four deaths since last April compared with 16 across the whole of 1999-2000.

Assistant Commissioner Michael Todd said the force was committed to bringing the number of deaths down even further

"So far this year we have seen a significant decrease in the number of deaths in custody in London but we are not complacent. One death in custody is one too many, " he said.