Police are blamed for drug deaths in custody

Police officers failed to notice in time that prisoners were critically ill in nine out of ten drug-related deaths in custody, a study has found.

In a significant number of cases involving fatal overdoses, prisoners were able to smuggle drugs past police and take them while in custody, the research also discovered.

The head of research at the independent Police Complaints Authority [PCA] blamed the "poor" and "inadequate" training of custody officers for the high number of deaths.

In the first study of its kind, researchers from the PCA examined 42 drug-related deaths in custody in 22 forces in England and Wales since March 1997. In 88 per cent of the deaths, the police did not call for a doctor or medical help before the prisoner became ill. In some deaths, the police believe the inmate was faking an overdose; others thought they had taken drugs but did not call an ambulance; and some thought the prisoner was drunk.

In a fifth of the cases of fatal overdoses, the custody officers failed to find the drugs which were later taken by the prisoner in a cell, police station or vehicle, researchers discovered.

Dr David Best, head of research at the PCA, said: "From the evidence we have gathered, the training of custody staff is inadequate. Our preliminary findings have huge implications for searches and the adequacies of searches."

Drug-related deaths account for about a quarter of all fatalities in police custody. There have been 233 deaths in custody in England and Wales in the past five years, but in the year to April 2002 there were 19 drug and alcohol-related deaths out of at total of 34.

The PCA is currently investigating deaths in custody, firearms incidents, and fatal police chases, in an attempt to identify where the police are going wrong and to encourage best practice among forces and bring down the death rate.

The unpublished preliminary report, "Analysis of drug related deaths in police care or custody 1997-2002", by Dr Best and Siobhan Havis, has identified a number of alarming trends.

In 12 per cent of the cases, medical help was called before the prisoner showed signs of distress and illness. In 10 per cent of cases, the officer mistakenly thought the prisoner was faking his illness.

Dr Best said the problem was particularly bad with civilian custody officers and police constables who receiving minimal or no training. In eight of the 42 deaths examined – 19 per cent – prisoners overdosed on drugs while in police custody. That means – in all those cases – the police failed to find drugs hidden on the suspect despite carrying out body searches.

In 15 deaths – about a third – the prisoners swallowed their drugs in an attempt to hide them from the police and overdosed or choked to death.

Surprisingly researchers found the drug that caused the most deaths was not heroin, as widely believed, but cocaine and crack-cocaine, which was found present in 60 per cent of the overdose cases. Traces of heroin and methadone, the chemical substitute, were found in 36 per cent of deaths.

The average age of the dead was 32, although they ranged from 15 to 65 and most were white men. Several police officers have been reprimanded after drug-related deaths. Three officers were disciplined over the death of a Gareth Brogden, 18, who choked on a condom filled with heroin in February 2000. The teenager, from Hartlepool, Cleveland, was nicknamed "Balaclava Boy" at the age of 11 after he wore a black mask on television and boasted about a series of crimes. As Brogden was arrested for a motoring offence he placed the drugs in his mouth. He was handcuffed and placed on his own in the back of van and taken to Hartlepool police station where he collapsed. An inquest said his death was an accident.

Three officers were disciplined in the case of Paul Harding, 48, who managed to conceal cocaine. He died in February 2001 of an overdose after taking the drug in his cell at Colindale police station in north London.

The PCA's full report, is due to be published in March.