Voluntary Attenders

It’s been the fashion for a few years to suggest we need to reduce the amount of times the police service uses s136 MHA. No-one quite understands who made the unilateral decision that it was over-used and we know already that attempts to focus upon its reductions have been problematic. Once upon a time, I […]

Adventures in 136 Land

Imagine this: you’re the police officer attending an incident where, despite your best efforts to do something different, you have no choice but to detain someone under s136 of the Mental Health Act 1983. You considered street triage, you called family and ultimately felt there was no other way, consistent with keeping this person safe […]

Stress-Testing Contingencies

About a decade ago, I was pottering about as the duty inspector in south Birmingham when a full-scale police mobilisation of public order units was ordered. This involves having to get together a sergeant and seven constables on to van, all of them ‘level two trained’ in public order tactics – riot police, to you […]