But a city solicitor and civil rights watchdogs said the move was "excessive" and could undermine community relations.


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The radical move comes after a review of tactics sparked by the death of former Sunderland University student Pc Joe Carroll in a patrol car.


Northumberland village beat bobby Pc Carrol, who met his wife and the university, died when the police car he was travelling in overturned after prisoner Steven Graham – who was not restrained – pulled on the handbrake.

Graham was subsequently convicted of manslaughter.
The incident sparked a force-wide review of security measures when transporting prisoners, which led to today's announcement to handcuff all prisoners unless there were "exceptional circumstances".

Other measures to be introduced include using GPS mapping to track officers and police staff transporting prisoners.
The force also want to buy 30 specially designed containment vehicles and three cellular vehicles at a cost of £564,000, providing additional training to all operational staff in transporting prisoners and upgrading first aid kits.

It is also evaluating the use of Velcro leg restraints.

Chief Superintendent Tim Shilston, head of Criminal Justice, said: "The reforms are designed to make the transportation of detainees as safe as possible both for police and the prisoners themselves.

"Northumbria Police will be handcuffing prisoners when they are arrested and transported. There will be obvious exceptions as in the case of the elderly or sick prisoners.

"Nevertheless, it remains a fact that able-bodied prisoners represent an unpredictable threat to the safety of those around them and the Chief Constable is determined to provide maximum support to officers and police staff required to deal with them."

But the move was condemned by city solicitor Willie Johnstone and Gareth Crossman, policy director with civil liberties campaign group Liberty.

"I think it is a knee-jerk reaction to an incident that went tragically wrong," said Mr Johnstone, of city firm Harding, Swinburne and Jackson.

"I don't know what the attitude of the officers will be. I suspect there will be many officers who feel their discretion is being taken away from them."

Handcuffing defendants could be provocative, especially if it was for a trivial offence.

"It may well cause more problems by handcuffing someone as a mandatory requirement," said Mr Johnstone.
"A lot of people will not understand why they are being handcuffed and it could cause a lot of problems if it is someone who is a member of a family or there are a lot of people around who have been drinking.

"There are times when the police have to resort to handcuffs, of course there are, but this is taking away the discretion of police.

"It should be left to the judgment of every individual officer."

His comments were echoed by Gareth Crossman.
"The police rightly have wide discretion to use handcuffs to ensure that neither officers nor anyone else is endangered," he said.

"However, automatically using handcuffs – even when someone is clearly not dangerous – is excessive and could undermine community relations.

"This is especially the case now that individuals can be arrested for every offence, even dropping litter."