Research & Reports

4WardEver UK

‘Excited Delirium’ blamed for deaths in police custody

Cases Adult UK - Police & Restraintall credits: Buzz Feed
published: 29 October 2016

During the summer of 2011, 25-year-old Jacob Michael died after being restrained by 11 police officers outside his home. Just 45 minutes prior to his death he had dialled 999 saying he feared for his life.

Witnesses saw Michael being repeatedly hit with police batons, moments after two officers from Cheshire constabulary released pepper spray into his face, the BBC reported. CCTV footage showed officers holding Michael down on the floor. There was evidence that he had broken ribs and a torn liver.

An inquest into his death concluded that Michael died from cocaine-induced “excited delirium” – a controversial medical condition you probably haven’t heard of.

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4WardEver UK

Police body cameras ‘cut complaints against officers’ says research

Camera Lenssource: BBC News
published: 29 September 2016

Police body cameras can dramatically reduce the number of complaints against officers, research suggests. The Cambridge University study showed complaints by members of the public against officers fell by 93% over 12 months compared with the year before.

Almost 2,000 officers across four UK forces and two US police departments were monitored for the project. Dr Barak Ariel, who led the research, said no other policing measure had led to such “radical” changes.

The study aimed to find out if the use of cameras, which are usually clipped to the top half of an officer’s uniform, affected complaints against police made by the public.

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4WardEver UK

Will isolating Islamic extremists in UK prisons stop radicalisation?

Domiciliary Prisonsource: Prison Watch UK
published: 8 September 2016

The British tabloid press has recently been alive with headlines of self-styled emirs, hate-preaching imams and jihadi books in prisons. Their ire only increased when radical preacher Anjem Choudary was convicted of swearing allegiance to Islamic State.

The government has responded by announcing a new strategy whereby the most dangerous extremists are to be isolated within high-security “prisons within prisons” to stop them from radicalising others.

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