Door-kicking prisoners outsmarted

A violent, scheming prisoner kicks a cage car door open just as a police officer unlocks it to release him. It flings back way too fast for the officer to take an evasive step aside. The door strikes a savage blow to his or her head, where it leaves a bleeding gash in need of several stitches.

Most cops who have ever used a cage car know this scenario well - as either victims of the brutal door assault, or witnesses to their colleagues taking a wallop.

Senior Constable Leon Michael with his Annual Justice Portfolio Award for Innovation in Health, Safety, Welfare and Injury Management.

So those with experience in the field know that opening cage car doors is not the trouble-free exercise it might seem to the uninitiated. It has for years stood as one of the most dangerous aspects of prisoner transportation.

From kicked-open doors in recent years, two Adelaide LSA officers have sustained head wounds that required sutures. Two others have, between them, suffered shoulder and hand injuries.

But, Hindley St patrol officer, Senior Constable Leon “Mick” Michael, might just have won the battle against vicious, door-kicking prisoners. The self-described problem-solver brought about the production of an award-winning ratchet locking device in 2002, and seems to have near wiped out cage car door assaults.

His device first proved its worth after an initial six-month trial on the Hindley St police station cage car. All officers who moved prisoners in and out of the car during the test period emerged injury-free.

And, later trials, on selected metropolitan and country cage cars over the past two years, have brought overwhelmingly positive feedback from operational cops.

“I believe in the device, because I’ve had people tell me how it has saved them from injury,” said Snr Const Michael.

“When we had it fitted to the Hindley St cage car, I had a number of people come to me. They said they’d had experiences where the door had been kicked, and that they would have been injured if the device hadn’t been fitted.”

Now known as the “Triple M” (Mick Michael Mechanism), the device comes with sturdy construction and a simple design. It consists of two steel bars and is bolted to the centre of the cage door at one end, and the rear right corner of the car at the other.

One bar, to which is attached several lugs, slides inside the other as the door opens. A spring-loaded lever then catches on the nearest of the lugs - spaced only centimetres apart - which restricts the door to only the slightest movement.

Officers’ only criticism of the Triple M is that it requires two-handed operation. They say this leaves any solo officer unable to operate the device with one hand, as he or she holds a prisoner with the other.

The dilemma of the door assaults first sparked Snr Const Michael’s interest when he attended a workplace consultative committee meeting at Hindley St police station in 2001. All officers at the meeting were able to recount door incidents in which either they or their colleagues had suffered injuries.

“It made me think about how much we use cage cars to transport prisoners in Adelaide, and the type of prisoners we are transporting,” said Snr Const Michael.

“Given the number of drunks and drug-affected people we have in the CBD on a Friday and Saturday night, a high percentage of our prisoners are transported to the City Watch House in that state. So the potential for injury to members is high.

“From that (thought), I just took it upon myself to try to come up with a solution to the problem.”

Snr Const Michael, an OHS representative, began to research not only recorded cage car door injuries, but also locking mechanisms used in other police jurisdictions. At Sturt police station he consulted Southern Operations OHS co-ordinator, Alex Highet, and joined a special committee which formed to consider the door issue.

Through his research, Snr Const Michael found the WA police force to be using a ratchet device fitted inside its cage cars to hold their doors open. Although he wanted a mechanism for external locking, he nonetheless took the ratchet idea to SAPOL vehicle commissioning manager, Des Moses.

Mr Moses had his WA counterpart send one of the devices to him at the Fleet Operations Unit. Then, through and in consultation with a SAPOL contractor, he had the mechanism modified into the Triple M.

“I believe it’s a great idea,” said Mr Moses. “The feedback I’ve got from it, especially from the Adelaide LSA, is that it’s fantastic.

“It’s going to prepare you for the surprises. If you’ve got someone sitting in the vehicle and, all of a sudden, they go to kick the door open, it’s only going to move about 50ml before it catches on to (a lug).

“Then, you can open the door quite slowly, while somebody’s standing there helping to unload the prisoner - or load him in.”

In November last year, the Triple M won the Annual Justice Portfolio Award for Innovation in Health, Safety, Welfare and Injury Management. The award recognized the mechanism’s creators for their commitment to OHS in SAPOL.

All Adelaide LSA cage cars, and some within other LSAs, are currently fitted with the Triple M. SAPOL, however, has not yet approved the full implementation of the device and continues to evaluate alternatives, including modifications to the Triple M.