Recommendation 60

The police should work effectively with other services without having to compensate for lack of resources elsewhere or absorb demand that should rightly sit with others. We understand that often police will not be the right professionals to intervene in mental health situations. We believe profoundly that people with mental health issues should receive expert care from the right professionals, rather than needlessly coming into contact with police officers who already face a range of demands aligned to their core mission. We are concerned however that there are risks associated with challenging other services to step up without providing them with sufficient resources to do so. Simply shifting unrealistic demand onto other services will not represent overall policy success for the Government. Moving to a new model may save police time but we should also expect to see “non-crime demand” outcomes improve across the system because the right professionals are responding, as well as improved policing performance in the core areas of preventing, investigating and detecting crime.