The Metropolitan Police Service was forced to spend around £70,000 answering a total of 8,655 calls made to the force last year by five people with mental health problems, newly published figures show.
A report by the senior police watchdog warns that police are facing extreme pressure as a result of the national crisis in mental health care, with officers “increasingly being used as the service of default”.
According to Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS), the Met receives a mental-health related phone call every four minutes, on average, says Sky News.
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And the problem is by no means confined to the English capital. The Chief Constable of Lancashire Police recently said his officers were spending 20,000 response hours on mental health each month, reports The Independent.
HM inspector of constabulary Zoe Billingham is calling on other services to stop relying on the availability of police.
“Overstretched and all-too-often overwhelmed police officers can’t always respond appropriately, and people in mental health crisis don’t always get the help they need,“ she said, adding: “The police should be the last resort, not the first port of call.”
The increased demand for mental health respondents comes amid growing policing challenges posed by other crises including soaring knife crime and terrorism. Meanwhile, police funding cuts has seen officer numbers fall by around 20,000 since 2010.
A survey conducted by HMICFRS found that just 2% of respondents believed it was “the police’s responsibility to respond to mental health calls”, while 70% felt “it was the main responsibility of the health services to deal with”.
Dr Paul Lelliott, who leads the mental health division at the Care Quality Commission, told Sky News that while people may be tempted to call the police because they offer a fast response, “they must never be considered a substitute for expertly trained healthcare professionals”.
