A record linkage study on former police detainees who died in Amsterdam between 2013 and 2015

Background: Police detainees are known to have inferior health. This study identifies the number of former police detainees who received medical care among deaths examined by forensic physicians and presents their death characteristics.

Methods: We included all deaths that were examined by forensic physicians of the Public Health Service Amsterdam from 2013 to 2015. Patient files of subjects were scanned for the presence of a prior medical consultation in the police cell and death characteristics were collected from post-mortem examination reports. We performed statistical analyses to discover what characteristics at post-mortem examination were associated with a prior consultation in the police cell.

Results: We identified n = 2618 subjects that met the inclusion criteria. Eight percent of subjects had one or more medical consultation(s) in the police cell in a mean follow up time of 4.8 (±3.0) years. No difference was found in the share of unnatural deaths between subjects with and without a prior consultation (68%), but distribution of death causes differed significantly. Male gender OR 2.3 (p < 0.001), age OR 0.98 (p < 0.001), unspecified unnatural dead OR 1.8 (p = 0.002), crime related dead OR 2.2 (p = 0.012) and accidental drowning and submerging death OR 4.6 (p < 0.001) were independently associated with the presence of an earlier consultation in the police cell.

Conclusion: Our data suggest that a small percentage of police detainees seen by forensic physicians for provision of medical care are also examined after death by these physicians, typically young males who seem to display risk-taking and criminal behavior resulting in unnatural dead.