Seeing the Pods in use in Broadmoor “sold them more” at the beginning of West Yorkshire Police’s introduction to the Safety Pod. We thought, ‘If they are using them in there, why shouldn’t we be using them in our custody areas?’. They showed us some of their training and some of the holds they use and we took some pictures from there to use in our training, it was very interesting.

The force began trialling the Pods at a custody suite in Bradford in December 2019 and this went on for more than a year. The good thing about the trial going on a little bit longer than anticipated was that the use of the Pod developed within custody and we developed policy on it within custody. When we first started, the big plan was there were going to be two trained users [with the Pod when it was in use] at all times – the detaining officers (DOs).Then it came to fruition that the Pod wasn’t being used because they didn’t have enough staff and they said ‘we can’t have two DOs sitting in a cell with the Pod. As a result, I changed policy so it was one trained user in there – one DO – and they only had to be in there to initially monitor the police officers. They could then go back to their daily business and come back every 30 minutes on their cell checks.

The natural development was that, clearly, we needed to train all Police Officers, not just Dos. Since March 1 2021, training with the Safety Pod has started to be rolled out to all front line officers. By March next year all the front line staff, any police officer that comes through the system, will have been trained on the use of the Pods.

Often when you’re restraining someone on you end up with a group of police officers all on the floor trying to restrain someone and there could easily be injuries to the subject and to police staff. There is also the big worry of positional asphyxia – people might be struggling with you because they can’t breathe, not because they’re just kicking off and we needed something where we could get away from that situation where you have several police officers all trying to hold someone down. God forbid, this could easily result in serious injuries or even the death in custody of a detainee – and nobody wants that.

Officers suffering knee and elbow injuries is common in situations where restraint of a subject on the floor is being attempted. When you’re pulling someone about trying to restrain them, you’re pulling muscles. Officers suffering broken noses and being spat at or bitten is also common. However, when the Pod is in use as everyone is off the floor and restraint becomes easier, with staff using the Excel Cushion to prevent the detainee’s legs kicking out. The situation also de-escalates more easily and the subject is more likely to calm down once on the Pod. The Pod gives us that opportunity to get everyone off the floor.As soon as you can do this, you can also reduce injuries to staff and time off, which leads to a shortage of staff on shift and officers maybe being off for a long period of time.

In my experience, it’s people of an older age who tend to be detention officers and if you’ve got a shortage of staff on your shift and you’ve got to go upstairs to request extra staff, that leaves other shifts short staffed instead, so there is a knock-on effect caused by injuries and staff going off sick to other areas in the force.

Using the Safety Pod also reduces the number of staff required in a restraint situation. When you transfer [the subject] onto the Pod there will be a maximum of four of you, but it could easily be just two on the Pod with the subject. In terms of time, I think roughly, from the evidence I’ve seen, using the Pod from the initial restraint to walking out takes about 30 minutes. Normally, you could be restraining for an hour or two hours, it just depends on what the subject is trying to achieve. Nobody wants to be sitting in a cell for hours looking after someone.

In one example of the Pod being used in Bradford, a distressed detainee badly scratched himself across the face and head with his bare hands and Police were forced to intervene to prevent him from coming to further harm. The Safety Pod was introduced to the cell as staff had been trained to and the individual was successfully restrained in a comfortable position on the Pod. The great thing about that case was, not only were we able to calm him down and de-escalate the situation quickly and effectively, but medical staff were able to very quickly come in and treat him while he was on the Pod. They cleaned his head up and took his obs and they were talking to him, calming him down. In total the incident lasted 20 minutes.

Being able to demonstrate benefits such as these made applying for funding in an environment where monetary resources are closely guarded, a slightly easier process and the funds came from a Proceeds of Crime Act (POCA) fund. £16,000 within the police system is not a great deal of money, especially if you think about time off for officers’ injuries that is being saved.

Despite the advantages of the Pod in the beginning, there was a sense of “you can’t teach an old dog new tricks” and officers were initially sceptical, particularly officers who had been in the force 15 or 20 year. I collared one lad look at it and roll his eyes and I thought ‘I will come back to you in a minute’.I demonstrated it and then said “I just saw you roll your eyes, what do you think?”. The response was “we’ll never use it. I can’t see the point of using it’.” But within 10 minutes of me leaving, they had already used it. That same team now use it the most.

We’ve moved on and learned the value of having the Pod we are now training all police officers on the use of the Pod so every police officer that goes into custody knows how to use it – and we are training police to ask for it when they go into custody.

All officers will be trained with it within the next 12 months and we find that officers’ attitudes change the more they use it. Everyone sees the benefits of it eventually. Bradford officers who were initially sceptical are now selling it to the other officers. They tell others it’s brilliant. It’s great that the officers are getting the benefit of it, as well as custody staff.

The feedback is absolutely brilliant and most importantly, they are not dragging people around the floor anymore, they are using the Pod correctly, which is better for them and better for the subject.We want them to keep being used and it has just been a case of changing attitudes and behaviours.

I’m leaving the Police force in September and I feel like it’s my legacy introducing Pods to the force and demonstrating their effectiveness for any other force that sees the value in them and wants to introduce them.

The reason I joined training school was that I wanted people to have the best training and to leave the force in a good state – a safer state. I certainly don’t want anyone going through a death in custody.“