End of year so natural to have some reflections and this one was a big one for me and our family. The biggest change we saw this year was the death of me Mam in July this year. I’ve spent many hours since sorting out her affairs, selling her house and it’s all complete in time for our first Christmas without her which will be weird. My own view is nothing happens after death but a small part of me can’t help but hope I’m wrong and that she went and found her solider somewhere and the pair of them are now watching on as their grandson prospers in to a fine young man.
The second massive change in 2024 has been my leaving the police service – not a hard decision at all, in the end. It felt perfectly natural because I came to accept over the last few years that my enthusiasm for the politics and “leadership” in policing was and my faith in its ability to do as it should was entirely exhausted. I’ve spent a lot of time just relaxing, walking the dog and thinking about what to do next but I threw my CV around a few places and have started picking up work doing consultancy, training and lecturing in a range of places which is starting to mean I have things to do.
In early January, another big change which kick in for me, bringing to an end my self-imposed “wind-down” from policing where I’ve become quite accustomed to regular meal times, daily fresh air and walking our fantastic new dog, Gustav. I have my induction on January 9th at the University of Birmingham to commence a part-time PhD programme. I’ve wanted to do this for twenty years but kids and dogs and wives and jobs all had to take priority.
RESEARCH
I have had a bee in my bonnet for years about research in policing generally, but especially in the area of my professional interests. I’ve watched over the last decades as initiative after initiative has been rolled out across policing without any credible evaluation or research. First we had street triage – yes, you can go online and look for research and evaluation and you’ll find papers published in journals and independently but here’s the issue. They were all completed after the schemes were up and running, using data supplied by the forces running the schemes which tended to be before-and-after snapshots of some aspects of business which might reasonably be affected by street triage. But it certainly did not ensure good data collection before the schemes began, researchers were not invited to help design the introduction and implementation which would allow for good quality research.
This is not complaint whatsoever about the researchers, many of whom I met and they lamented the same points I’ve just made. They wanted to have been involved earlier so they could design the data capture, advise on data collection, risk mitigations, research methods and control groups. So those who argued for street triage would be able to say “But evaluations show X, Y, Z …” and they’re correct to an extent. They’d be entirely correct if they said, “But poor quality evaluations show X, Y, Z.” You don’t have to believe me: just read the NICE guidelines on mental health and criminal justice which stated that of all the street triage evaluations completed, only three met basic research standards and on a five point quality scale, rated as VERY LOW, VERY LOW and LOW.
I give detail on this because we’re now in that territory for Right Care, Right Person – another initiative which has been rolled out without effective evaluation to fully reflect its impact and we’re now in a position where partial studies are emerging, again with limited and imperfect methods and people are arguing about impact based on non-independent perspectives. Yes, we’ve seen Coroner’s mentioning RCRP in various Preventing Future Death reports, but those don’t contain enough detail either. I’m yet to blog about the University of York and King’s Fund study OR on the Home Office internal rapid review – I have read them both and none of the generalised points I’m trying to make in this post are changed by having read those recent evaluations.
PART-TIME PHD
So I thought I’d go and do some of this for myself, to the extent I can – the initial idea for my programme is to look at social harm theory and police legitimacy following mental health related deaths after police contact, starting off with thematic analysis of Preventing Future Death reports and the lessons so often unlearned, set against the history of this work over the last twenty years. As with all programmes, the detail will no doubt be refined, changed or added to as I bury myself in the library and get smashed in to shape by supervisors challenging woolly ideas but the fact there is little research in the background of the major policy initiatives in policing and mental health is, of itself, telling.
There is a contradiction to be observed and explored:
- One of the problems in policing and mental health is the overwhelming demand facing the police service which keeps my former colleagues occupied for countless hours – I have no issues at all with instincts to reduce the time spent or wasted on demand which shouldn’t be touching the police at all or should be handled differently.
- One of the other problems is the de-legitimising disasters which have occurred and which raise questions about the very legitimacy of the police – after George Floyd died in the US, we saw the emergence of Black Lives Matters protests in the UK and the names on placards of those who had died controversial deaths were disproportionately mental health related deaths.
- What if the desire to fix the first problem is done in such a way as it exacerbates the risk of the second? – and in our RCRP-led attempts to see less police time spent on what we must remember are only certain aspects of their role on mental health, we end up learning that people have been hurt, professionals subject to lengthy, life-altering investigations or worse?
That’s where I think we are – and we saw controversial deaths after contact with street triage schemes that I have to insist, almost nobody wanted to talk about. I was pulled up many times by the police whilst serving for raising this point and you’ll notice, for example, if you read any or all of the Independent Office for Police Conduct annual reports for deaths in police custody or following contact, you will not see analysis done with reference to street triage. I personally have heard of 27 such deaths and that’s just me paying attention to comments by colleagues or following stories in the news – inevitably, there will have been more and it’s just not analysed because it isn’t reported or data gathered.
LEARNING THE LESSONS
We seem to have started in a similar fashion with Right Care, Right Person. Humberside Police have publicly talked in recent weeks about “five or six inquests” and I’ve blogged on various cases already past like Heather Findlay, Martin Waite and Stevyn Carr. We know there are other inquests pending like those for the killings in Costessey which took place before Norfolk Police introduced RCRP but which caused that programme to be paused amidst a debate about whether there had been a ‘soft launch’ as has been suggested in other areas. And there is the pending inquest in to the death of Ricki Gillatt in Barnsley.
Of course, we don’t know what these inquests will conclude and relevant facts are not fully public until those hearings take place. We have to accept they may find no fault, but my experience of inquests, including as an expert witness, is the coronial process is far from perfect and I’m often surprised how often I still have questions after reading conclusions and PFD notices.
I hope you have time over the festive period with your family and friends, to relax and enjoy things. I wish all my former colleagues in 999 and NHS services the very best for a safe period whilst knowing they’ll be working very hard to keep us safe.
There is a lot still to do – see you Next Year!
Winner of the President’s Medal, the Royal College of Psychiatrists.
Winner of the Mind Digital Media Award
All opinions expressed are my own – they do not represent the views of any organisation.
(c) Michael Brown, 2024.
I am not a police officer.
I try to keep this blog up to date, but inevitably over time, amendments to the law as well as court rulings and other findings from inquests and complaints processes mean it is difficult to ensure all the articles and pages remain current. Please ensure you check all legal issues in particular and take appropriate professional advice where necessary.
Government legislation website – www.legislation.gov.uk
Mental Health Cop 