Dealing with mental health calls 'not the police's role' says Leicestershire Federation Chair
It's after calls that the police's time should be spent detecting crime instead
There are calls that Leicestershire Police and other forces across the country are becoming too occupied by dealing with mental health calls.
The Chair of Leicestershire Police Federation Adam Commons says officers are having to respond to mental health crises outside of office hours, when those struggling feel like they have nowhere else to go.
It follows comments last week from former Merseyside Police Chief Constable Andy Cooke, who told MPs that up to 40% of officers’ time is taken up on mental health calls:
“If that's what the public and Parliament want Policing to do, that's fine. But you must bear in mind while they're doing that, they're not doing other things that they should be doing, like detecting crime."
Adam Commons says the police have a duty to safeguard people, but agreed that handling mental health scenarios isn't their role:
"With the police being 24/7 and the service of last resort, when you need help and there is nobody else around, it tends to fall to us, the police. So we end up dealing with people in mental health crisis outside of office hours, because that's what we do but we can't always help, and end up spending a lot of time trying to safeguard... refer to other agencies."
"We have to play our role and safeguard people because that's what we do. But is it our role? No, I would say it's not. We've had to become in the last 10, 15 years, more mental health professionals."
How to find an urgent mental health helpline