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'Met Police are so tied up dealing with people with mental health issues officers barely have time to tackle crime some days'

Document Cited in Related
Vincent
Published date13 August 2022
Publication titleMyLondon (England)
On a recent night shift, Superintendent Ivey said around 75-80% of officers' time was spent helping suicidal, despondent or mentally ill people, "almost all of which hasn't any bearing on actual crime," he added. He told MyLondon: "All of those calls were to brief me on a high risk missing person or people who have made threats to kill themselves

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"I don't think the public realise the huge demands on the police when a range of other partners, such as emergency departments, health trusts, social services, also share that responsibility. We're a 24/7 service. So when those other services begin to creek, we pick up the slack."

From March 2021-22, the Met Police received nearly 100,00 calls where mental health was flagged as an issue. The cost of living crisis is only likely to increase that number, it is predicted.

Thousands of police hours are being lost each year on 'hospital watch' where officers are forced to sit in accident and emergency units with someone who has been arrested, Superintendent Ivey added.

On a specific case, police were called to a man wielding a knife and he was taken into custody, where a healthcare professional said he needs to go to A&E to check his condition including potential drug use. This meant two officers waited with him at A&E for eight hours. Once he'd been seen, he was taken back to the police station where officers waited for a mental health assessment for another eight hours. He required constant observation given he was at high risk of trying to self-harm.

Superintendent Ivey said: "It was a total of 24 hours and that is abstracting two officers from a 12-hour shift just...

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