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 (DA), Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG), as well as Animal Welfare
- Our DA & VAWG panel have seen an investigation re-opened for further questioning.
- 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 July 2025 at Clough Road Police Station in Hull. 10 panel members were in attendance. Some key topics were discussed and the panel scrutinised 5 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 July 2025 meeting can be found here.
Information from our previous meeting in April 2025 can be found here.
3 panel members attended our July 2025 Police Powers meet up. The panel was held at Victoria Street Police Station in Grimsby. As a group, the panel scrutinised 5 Stop and Search Records as well as 5 Use of Force records (which related to the custody suites as requested by the members)
The full report from the July 2025 meeting can be found here.
The previous panel report in April 2025 can be found here.
In July 2025 the panel met at The Lawns in Cottingham. The 5 members in attendance looked over 6 reports regarding Strip Searches and viewed the custody CCTV relating to those detainees being booked into custody. Mental Health remained a focus for the panel for this meeting, and 2 full custody records were scrutinised in relation to mental health care provided to those being detained.
The full report from the July 2025 meeting can be found here.
The previous panel report from April can be found here
Our August 2025 panel was chaired once again by Zoe Taylor, and attended by 5 other panel chairs. The Deputy Chief Constable was in attendance to answer all our questions and take away actions we felt necessary to be completed.
Read the full report from the August meeting here.
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.
