Developing a conceptual model for police custody in the UK

The reduction of police officers in UK forces in recent years has reduced the number of staff in police custody, hence it is imperative that staff, and other resources, are utilized appropriately to optimize the custody process. This work aims to develop a simulation model that looks at resource utilisation in police custody. Resource availability can be modelled and tested using discrete event simulation. Developing an accurate conceptual model is a key stage to link the real-world problem and the simulation model. There is minimal literature presenting an accurate police custody conceptual model and hence, that is the focus of this paper. The key sources of information for constructing this model, previous literature, custody record analysis and a custody suite visit are discussed. A final conceptual model is presented with a discussion of how this will be converted into a simulation.