Reconciling mental health, public policing and police accountability

Abstract

The paper evaluates a range of policy documents, parliamentary debates, academic reports and statutes in an attempt to contextualise the condition of mental health policing in England and Wales. It establishes that mental health care plays an important role in public policing and argues that police organisations need to institute urgent reforms to correct a prevailing culture of complacency. An unethical cultural attitude towards mental health care has caused decision-making and the exercise of police discretion to be neither well-informed nor protective in many cases, resulting in the substandard treatment of people with mental health problems. The paper argues that changes introduced by the Policing and Crime Act 2017 and the revised College of Policing mental health guidelines do not go far enough and that more extensive root-and-branch reforms are needed.

Mental health street triage: Comparing experiences of delivery across three sites

“…The introduction of MHST in most localities across England and Wales significantly changes the operational contexts, provisions of support and practices of professionals to respond to people in mental health crisis, and there are very few studies that have provided primary research evidence detailing the operational contexts and practices of professionals. Moreover, current literature is largely focused on service development and providing a rationale for street triage (for example, Horspool et al, (2016), Baraki et al (2017), Keown et al (2016) and Reveruzzi and Pilling, (2016)) and is overly police‐centric dominated by a narrative of risk (for example, McDaniel, (2018) and Menkes and Bendelow, (2014)). This paper addresses this gap by considering the interplay between officers and CPNs in practice situated within specific strategic and operational contexts, highlighting shifts in service aims over time, illustrating the influence of place to service developments and revealing the importance of trust in underpinning the interplay between officers and CPNs.…”

“…Confidence and knowledge among police officers is critical, as McDaniel (2018) posits that the lack of procedural clarity in the statutory framework contributes to uncertainty and apprehension among police officers encountering individuals in mental health distress. Mental health training tends to focus on legislation rather than practical, in-depth or scenario-based sessions (Menkes & Bendelow, 2014), potentially impacting officer confidence in appropriately responding to an individual in distress.…”

“They just don’t care about us!”: Police custody experiences for young men with histories of injecting drug use

“…At this time, untreated health issues and unmet needs in the social and welfare domains are common and may be exacerbated by the psychological distress of arrest and/or drug intoxication and withdrawal (Coghlan, Gannoni, Goldsmid, Patterson, & Willis, 2015; Ogloff, Warren, Tye, Blaher, & Thomas, 2011). Although a small (albeit growing) body of research has focused on the experience of police detainees in Australia and the UK (Choongh, 1998; Dixon, 1997, 2005; Kendall, 2018; McDaniel, 2019; Skinns, 2011, 2019; Skinns, Wooff, & Sprawson, 2015; Wooff & Skinns, 2018), no previous researchers (to our knowledge) have attended to the perspectives of young men or those with injecting drug use histories.…”

Police and health operational staff perspectives on managing detainees held under Section 136 of the Mental Health Act: A qualitative study in London

“…Moreover, commentators have been critical of the police's approach to managing people in mental health crisis due to a lack of understanding of an individual's mental health needs (McDaniel, 2019;Independent Commission on Mental Health and Policing, 2013;Clifford, 2010). Studies of detainee perspectives have highlighted the traumatic nature of the detention process, which has resulted in dissatisfaction with both police and health professionals (McGuinness, Dowling, & Trimble, 2013;Laidlaw, Pugh, Riley, & Hovey, 2010;Jones & Mason, 2002).…”