UK: Met police to soon stop attending emergency calls related to mental health incidents, says report

In the United Kingdom, the Metropolitan Police officers will stop attending mental health crisis calls in order to focus on crime, The Guardian reported on Sunday (May 28).

The report mentioned that in a letter, seen by the outlet, Mark Rowley, who is the Met's chief officer, said that an order will be issued to his officers not to attend thousands of calls they get every year to deal with mental health incidents.

The letter was reportedly sent on May 24 to health and social care services, with a deadline of August 31. After the deadline, the new scheme will come into force.

The Met chief believes the change is necessary as officers are being sidetracked from their primary mission of combating crime, and patients who require medical professionals are being let down when a police officer attends instead.

In the letter, Sir Mark stated that it takes over 23 hours on average from the time someone is detained under the Mental Health Act until they are given over to medical care.

But BBC has reported that mental health charity Mind raised concerns over the plan and Zoe Billingham said the proposals could create a "vacuum". Billingham was previously Her Majesty's Inspector of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue.

He writes that his officers spend more than 10,000 hours per month on "what is principallya health matter," and that police and other social services are "collectively failing patients" by not ensuringthey receive appropriate help, as well as failing Londoners more broadly due to the impact on police resources.

He mentions in the letter that Humberside Police's right care, right person (RCRP) strategy, ensured that mental health calls were handled by medical professionals rather than officers.

As quoted by news reports, part of the letter mentioned: "It is important to stress the urgency of implementing RCRP in London. Every day that we permit the status quo to remain we are collectively failing patients and are not setting officers up to succeed. In fact, we are failing Londoners twice.

"We are failing them first by sending police officers, not medical professionals, to those in a mental health crisis, and expecting them to do their best in circumstances where they are not the right people to be dealing with the patient," it added.

"We are failing Londoners a second time by taking large amounts of officer time away from preventing and solving crime, as well as dealing properly with victims, in order to fill gaps for others," it further added.

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