Nottinghamshire unveil new hi-tech custody suite

Carlton Police Station’s new custody suite has just been opened by Deputy Chief Constable Howard Roberts and the Chairman of the Police Authority John Clarke.

The fully refurbished suite includes youth, female and male cells, interview rooms and drug and breath testing facilities. It also contains a medical examination room and a finger printing and image capture area. A state-of-the-art Livescan machine will also be installed that will enable fingerprints to be taken electronically. A Smartwater arch will also be installed in the suite which will enable all prisoners to be scanned for traces of the invisible fluid. Smartwater solution is a hi-tech marking system that incorporates DNA technology and is used to mark property.

Deputy Chief Constable Howard Roberts said: “I am pleased to officially open the Carlton Custody Suite. The project is part of the force’s Better to Best Programme.

Prisoner numbers have increased significantly across the force over the last few years, along with the workload created by each detainee. Changes in the law mean that more people are processed at the point of arrest. Photographs and fingerprints are now taken on arrest instead after charge. In addition, DNA samples are also now taken from all detainees. By becoming more efficient and effective and improving the processes and resources we have in place, we can ensure that officers will have a greater amount of time to deal with crime in our communities. These additional resources will mean that as well as freeing up time for officers, more criminals will be able to be interviewed and dealt with. It’s time to transfer the fear of crime and disorder from communities to the criminals.”