An interview with Chief Inspector Robert Wicks, who works as head of custody for both Norfolk and Suffolk, reveals how the police deal with children in custody.
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00:00 We deal with some of the most vulnerable people in Suffolk and Norfolk in terms of their needs when they come into police custody.
00:07 So we always try where possible not to bring people into custody.
00:12 Custody is always the last resort for people who have committed crimes.
00:15 When they do come in we need to make sure that we care for them well,
00:18 we look after them and they get the appropriate support that they need whilst in custody and then
00:24 hopefully we don't see them back in in the future because we've given them
00:28 opportunity to liaise with partners who can divert them away from a life of crime.
00:32 So once they are booked into
00:34 the custody system, it may well be that they're going straight to interview because it's a relatively straightforward case.
00:42 Something a bit more complex, they would be taken to one of our child cells.
00:46 At the moment they're identified by having a different colour door to the others.
00:50 Children as well as adults are entitled to exercise.
00:55 There's also reading material that they can look at should they wish to do so.
00:59 We do have some more comforting things like teddy bears and things that could be available to support a child or young person because
01:05 it's not always just about their physical age, it's about their
01:08 mental age and the requirements that they may have.
01:12 All of our child cells as well are going to be redecorated over the summer just to break up the cells which are
01:18 at the moment the same as an adult cell. All of our cells within custody have been approved for the use of children.
01:25 So we're just trying to enhance the service that we can offer
01:28 for the children and young people that attend custody.
01:32 We always try to deal with children outside of the custody environment in the first place.
01:37 So we don't have too many people who are first-time offenders actually coming into custody.
01:42 It's due to an escalation normally that they would end up needing to come and utilize one of our facilities.
01:49 Sometimes it's due to circumstance,
01:53 unfortunately. Not all children have the stable family background and they're not all as privileged as others and sometimes
01:59 becoming very vulnerable you can be targeted by groups.
02:03 So you'll have heard about county lines. County lines is when drugs are brought into the county of Suffolk or Norfolk, primarily from London,
02:11 with gangs working in the background. They will target vulnerable
02:15 young men and women who they will utilize to do the footwork and sell the drugs on their behalf.
02:21 And so when people are really vulnerable, it's challenging
02:25 for policing and our partners to prevent individuals going into that life because they find a group who they belong to because they're
02:33 you know, that those individuals are able to care for them, look after them, they feel like they're loved,
02:40 they feel like they're needed and so it is difficult because they then become embroiled in
02:45 criminality which they may not wish to be involved with. I think as a parent you need to understand what your child is doing,
02:52 where they are and who they are, spending their time with. This isn't blaming parents for the way that the children
02:58 behave.
03:00 Not at all. It's really
03:02 challenging for any parent to bring a child up, whether you're in a stable relationship, whether the child has
03:09 academic challenges,
03:11 whether they have friendship group and peer group challenges.
03:15 Being a parent is not easy and this is not about blaming.
03:18 It is about making sure that everybody knows that the help is out there to support them in
03:23 anything that they need with regard to their child to prevent them becoming involved in criminality.
03:29 [BLANK_AUDIO]