Sussex Police Authority Volunteers

Sussex Police Authority manages up to 70 dedicated volunteers who undertake vital duties for its Independent Custody Visiting (ICV) scheme and its Independent CCTV Monitoring scheme. The volunteers are members of the local community across Sussex, from all walks of life, who visit police custody centres (Investigation and Detainee Handling Centres) to observe, comment and report on the conditions under which persons are detained. These arrangements also provide an independent check on the way police officers carry out their duties with regard to detained persons.

Representatives from the community are recruited and appointed by Sussex Police Authority on a geographical basis to visit the six police custody centres in Sussex (Brighton, Chichester, Crawley, Eastbourne, Hastings and Worthing). Unannounced visits are made by pairs of visitors at varying times of the day and night to ensure a consistent pattern of visits. After every visit, the pair of visitors complete a written report form about their findings, which is then passed onto the ICV Scheme Manager at the Police Authority.

Following completion of an application form and interview by the Police Authority, volunteers are appointed to a panel of people available to visit the custody centre in the area concerned. Each area panel has a local Co-ordinator who provides support to volunteers in conjunction with the local custody inspector. Each panel of visitors has bi-annual meetings to discuss issues arising from visits and relevant information is communicated to the police at local and force level as well as to the Police Authority. Each Panel Co-ordinator is responsible for organising the rota of visits to the custody centre.

Full training is given to all the volunteers when they begin their role and to enhance their role throughout the year further training is given on a variety of issues such as mental health, Gypsies and Travellers and fixated complainants. Volunteers are also given regular updates on the work of the Authority and findings from reports and inspections that all help them carry out their role.

The work carried out by Independent Custody Visitors is entirely voluntary, but travelling expenses are payable. Please see the Independent Custody Visiting Scheme for further information.

An annual newsletter is produced for all Independent Custody Visitors providing news and updates for all volunteers, a downloadable version of the newsletters is found below.

ICV-Newsletter-September-2009

The PROFESSIONAL STANDARDS COMMITTEE is a public meeting that has a broad remit that includes the oversight of complaints handling relating to officers and staff within the Force and the Authority, the management of the Sussex Independent Custody Visitor Scheme and the Independent CCTV Monitoring Scheme.