Skegness: Chief Constable opens refurbished custody suite

Lincolnshire Police’s new Chief Constable, Paul Gibson, was delighted to be in Skegness today (10 May) at the opening of the recently refurbished custody suite.

The purpose of the renovation was to bring the custody suite up to current specifications and guidelines, as well as meet recommendations made by HMICFRS, His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services, following their inspection of our custody suites in May 2022. 

Skegness custody has only had remedial repairs over the years and most of the mechanical and ventilation systems were at the end of life, so when we had the opportunity to carry out a full refurbishment of the suite it was a chance to future-proof the suite and bring it up to the latest ministry of justice specification.

The work saw improvements of the heating and ventilation system; installation of new panic alarm, fire alarm, and CCTV systems, as well as a new intercom.  Bringing the custody suite up to correct specification also enables us to capture the best evidence for our investigations. It offers improvements to the medical room, interview rooms, and rooms where we take biometrics such as fingerprints and DNA.

The heating plant for the custody suite was coming to the end of its life so it was updated to run on air source heat pumps, which aligns with the Force’s decarbonisation strategy, it also means that custody is now not reliant on natural gas for the heating and reduces the heating load on the boilers that supply heating to the station.

We fitted a call system to the cells so the detainees can communicate with the custody desk, this will enable custody staff to communicate with the detainees immediately, rather than having to go to cells every time the detainee presses a button.

Above, Skegness refurbished custody suite

We now have a new fully computerised panic alarm system, rather than just lights on a board.  The CCTV system has had the latest high-definition cameras installed - these have also been repositioned to avoid blind spots.

We have used the old corridor to the Magistrates’ court to create a third interview room which is equipped with a full video interview system, and new furniture as also been installed in all interview rooms.

Speaking at the opening, Chief Constable Gibson said:

“The impact of these refurbishments means that we are not only treating prisoners with dignity and respect, but there will also be improved handling of evidence and improved working conditions for our staff and partners, which is bound to have a tremendously positive impact on the quality of our investigative process."

We shall be moving onto a renovation of the Boston custody suites. We do not have an exact date for this, but we will be using the practical learning from this renovation to help us with the work required there. We used a prisoner van based within the East Lindsey area to transport any prisoners to the other suites (mainly Boston or Lincoln) whilst Skegness was closed. This van was staffed by two Police officers, and we have used overtime to help with this. This enabled us to keep staff located in the East Lindsey areas to be able to respond to incidents immediately, rather than them being potentially indisposed transporting prisoners to Boston or Lincoln.

All teams across the Police force have worked brilliantly together to support each other during this closure. We would also like to acknowledge our partners, who have also been very supportive, such as our custody detention officers (employed via Mitie Care and Custody), our healthcare professionals (via CRG – Castle Rock Group) and liaison and diversion staff (NHS).