This is a post about an aspect of mental health provision that has long puzzled me and various other police officers: direct patient access to specialist mental health services like medium secure units, based purely on clinical need. There have been a range of incidents in my own experience, some have featured in media or […]

*** THIS POST IS NOW OUT OF DATE *** Update  10/08/2015 >>> This blog was written prior to legal changes introduced in September 2012 and prior to new statutory guidelines in August 2015.  A summary of the relevant 2012 changes can be read here and a BLOG on the 2015 guidelines here. The post remains […]

I’ve written before about how the prosecution of suspects who have mental health problems can be in the public interest – usually for more serious offences but also where indicators of serious future risk are obvious.  To say such a thing is not to argue for the unnecessary criminalisation of vulnerable people, but to observe […]