April 2001
Being a 24 hour a day, 365 days a year, public response service has meant that the police have, in general, always played a role as the agency of last resort in responding to individuals who may be suffering from some form of mental disorder. Whilst I do not have any detailed or specific statistics regarding police involvement with mentally disordered individuals over the years, there is certainly an intuitive feeling among operational police officers that the trend is towards an increasing involvement with individuals of this nature. At the end of this report I have provided some statistical data which gives a flavour of the present operational situation. My difficulty is the absence of any clinical assessment of individuals involved and the statistics therefore rely upon the subjective opinion of either the member of public reporting the matter or the police officers involved.
It is difficult to quantify the increased engagement of police officers in this area however it is entirely probable that a number of factors are at play here. Firstly, there is the perception that the trend towards providing care in the community for individuals suffering from some form of mental disorder has led to an increased public (and police officer) awareness, even concern, regarding the behaviour of some individuals. The common action for members of the public when confronted with individuals who are behaving in some form of unexplained way is to often phone the police service whom they quite rightly believe will either address the situation themselves, or will know exactly who to contact for the answer.
The second factor is a far more recent phenomenon which revolves around the increasing complexity of society in general, the perception that the pressures and stresses of modern living are taking their toll and also some notion that the increasing abuse of alcohol, and other controlled substances has led to more instances of outwardly irrational behaviour on the part of members of our society. All these factors lead to the perception that police officers are increasingly involved in areas around the margins of breaches of the Criminal law by individuals who may be vulnerable and in need of help rather than truly culpable for their criminal acts.
Statutory situation
The main piece of legislation which relates to the police involvement in mentally disordered individuals, and indeed makes provision for the detention of persons suffering from mental disorders, is the Mental Health (Scotland) Act 1984. This Act allows for persons to be detained in the hospital or place of safety for their own safety or for the safety of others.
Whilst there are a number of what we conservative police officers would call ‘unusual individuals’ existing in society, officers would normally only concern themselves with those who are at any particular time displaying an obvious danger to themselves or a danger to others and who are in need of immediate care and control. In these circumstances Section 118 of the Mental Health (Scotland) Act provides the police with the power to take the persons who are apparently suffering from a mental disorder in a public place to a place of safety. Officers would normally only consider a police station in an emergency situation.
It is important to point out that police officers have no power to remove persons suffering from a mental disorder if that person is found in a private place, for example their own home. From practical experience the most likely occasion when police officers encounter people suffering from mental disorders in their own home is normally after concern has been expressed by a neighbour, a relative or indeed a GP who is calling for police assistance.
If officers are called by a neighbour to an individual who is in a private place and apparently suffering from some form of mental disorder, and the police officers deem that it is urgently necessary for such a person’s health or safety, or for the safety of others that they be admitted to a hospital, then the officers would under all circumstances contact a medical practitioner to examine this individual. Officers would thereafter render any assistance deemed appropriate by the medical practitioner to ensure that the individual received the treatment which was deemed appropriate.
It is very difficult to isolate those incidents which police officers are involved in where it is very clearly a matter regarding a mentally disordered individual. However, researching the Dumfries and Galloway Police Incident recording system for the Dumfries Division indicates that between 1 April and 31 December 2000 there have been approximately 275 situations occurring where concern has been expressed for people who have either been deemed to be suicidal or have mental or psychiatric problems.
Overview of local police training
I would like to turn very briefly to police training within the Dumfries Division to provide some indication of what kind of information operational officers receive in relation to this difficult area of police work.
Firstly, all police officers attend the Scottish Police College where during their 12 week training period they receive four hours of specific training in the legislation surrounding people suffering from mental disorders. This training includes the Police powers contained under the Mental Health (Scotland) Act 1984 and, more importantly, the practical ethos that when dealing with anyone who appears to be mentally disturbed an officer should remember that the person is in need of help and is not necessarily a criminal. In all circumstances our officers are instructed to seek medical opinion and guidance at the earliest opportunity.
In Dumfries and Galloway officers receive secondary back-up training in their powers and duties in terms of the Mental Health (Scotland) Act and once a year officers within Dumfries Division receive an input from Community Psychiatric Services. This input normally relates to the ability to recognise the obvious indications of mental disorder and also provides some simple, practical methods of how to approach individuals who are showing aggressive or irrational behaviour.
Summary
I hope this article has given at least a flavour of the variety and complexity of challenges faced at the immediate operational level by police officers who have very little training in recognising the signs or symptoms of mental disorder and who very often have to deal with violent or irrational people who are quite simply criminal rather than ill.
There is no question that in Dumfries Division police officers rely heavily upon the personal input of on-call police doctors. Whilst at an operational level it is believed that incidents involving people with mental disorders are on the increase, it is particularly difficult to quantify exact extent of this perceived increase or indeed the impact which increasing abuse of alcohol and controlled drugs is having on the perception of mentally disordered offenders in the community.