Highlights
- Over 100 visits to custody suites by our volunteers, checking on the welfare of almost 450 detainees
- Our Police Powers panel have had direct influence in changing training received by Humberside Officers
- We now have almost 70 volunteers across all our panels who give up their time to help our community
- New Panels and expansion of existing schemes in 2025, focusing on Domestic Abuse, Violence Against Women and Girls, as well as Animal Welfare
- Our Custody Panel influenced policy change regarding Appropriate Adults whilst in the Custody Suite
- We are the only OPCC to run an open Hate Crime Victim Survey to try and gauge how victims in our region are truly feeling
Read the latest blog from the Scrutiny Panels Manager here
Meeting Reports
Reports and action trackers across all our Scrutiny Panel Meetings can be found here
Our last meeting was held in April 2025 at Victoria Street Police Station in Grimsby. 8 panel members were in attendance. Some key topics were discussed and the panel scrutinised 3 Hate Crime Reports including another sample where we listened to a 999 call to scrutinise all aspects of Hate Crime recording. The full report from the April meeting can be found here.
Information from our previous meeting in January 2025 can be found here.
7 panel members attended our April Police Powers meet up. The panel was held at Clough Road Police Station in Hull. As a group, the panel scrutinised 5 Stop and Search Records as well as 7 Use of Force records (including the re-review of some Body Worn Video from the January Panel). Not only were the officer reports given a deep dive, but the officers body worn video was also viewed to ensure procedures are being followed. The full April 2025 meeting report can be found here.
The previous panel report in January can be found here.
The April panel met at The Lawns in Cottingham. The 7 members in attendance looked over 6 reports regarding Strip Searches and viewed the custody CCTV relating to those detainees being booked into custody. The members also received an input on detainees suffering with Mental Health issues within custody, and a sample was reviewed on this subject. Mental Health will remain a focus for the panel in the July 2025 meeting. The full & latest report from April 2025 can be found here
The previous panel report from January can be found here
The next panel is due for May 2025. An update and report will be found here in due course
Annual Update
In 2024, our ICVs completed 104 visits to the custody suites in Grimsby and Hull. During these visits, 457 detainees of all ages and backgrounds were spoken with, ensuring they have been given their rights, entitlements and that they are being treated with dignity and respect. View our annual report here.
Quarterly Update
Between April to June 2025, our visitors completed 27 visits, speaking to 115 detainees about their welfare and care needs. In the previous quarter we also achieved 27 visits, so it is great to see consistency in this area. Part of our goals for this year was to ensure we once again complete over 100 visits in a financial year, and we are well on target to achieve this.
During these visits our ICVs raised some issues. with most being remedied immediately by the staff on duty. These include requests for some detainees to have books or other distraction materials, as well as other personal requests that our volunteers ensured were met. We noticed an increase in detainees not wishing for family to be informed that they were in custody. This is something we will monitor in future stats and outcomes.
We also welcomed 6 new volunteers to the scheme who will be visiting Birchin Way in the near future. We now have 29 custody visitors, which gives us a greater level of resilience and will help us ensure that the level of visits we need is achieved.
In June we held our 2nd ever DA & VAWG Scrutiny Panel. 8 members arrived at Melton 2 Police Station, with the day starting with a tour of the Force Control Room (FCR) and an input from the staff there, for the members to better understand the journey of a 999/101 call into Humberside Police.
The panel then scrutinised samples of real police reports, and listened to the corresponding 999 and 101 calls for those crimes.
