Police officers would never ignore a call for help from a vulnerable person but the way they respond to mental health call-outs has to change, according to Staffordshire Police Federation chair Lee Robinson.
Lee was speaking after Chief Constable Chris Noble confirmed the Force was planning to take a different approach in the coming months.
He said: “Our Chief Constable has been quite clear about this, we are not going to stop going out to vulnerable people in their hour of need.
“If someone is in distress and may cause harm to themselves or others then we will turn out.”
But he said there had to be an honest evaluation of what people expect from their police service and called for greater investment in mental health services across the county.
“First and foremost we have to stop those people becoming vulnerable in the first place and that requires investment in partner agencies such as the mental health services,” he said.
“If we can stop people becoming vulnerable in the first place then the demand isn’t even there to start with.”
Lee said a multi-faceted approach involving other agencies would allow the police to concentrate on tackling crime and antisocial behaviour.
“Staffordshire Police should be focussed on the prevention and detection of crime - that is what people want us to do and that is what we are judged against,” he said.
“But when we have officers sitting with vulnerable mental health patients in a hospital waiting for those lengthy handovers and assessments it means there is a double crew that can't respond to a domestic abuse incident or progress an investigation that’s already in their work tray.”
Lee said recent announcements that officers would longer attend mental health calls did not come as a surprise as the issue had been under discussion within policing for some time.
He said: “Humberside Police have been doing this for a while now with their Right Care Right Person approach and our chief is from Humberside so we were talking about this months ago.
“It is scheduled into our planning for later this year and I think most forces across the country are taking the same stance to be honest.
“Our Chief Constable hasn’t said we are turning the tap off but he has called for some honest conversations with key partners at a strategic level to make sure they are prepared and ready and in the right place so over the course of the next few months we can start turning that tap down in terms of demand.”
