Policing the Mentally Ill: Addressing the challenge in NSW Police Force

As a consequence of their 24-7 availability, police tend to be thefirst responders to many non-crime incidents, including thoseinvolving the welfare of people with a mentally illness. Policeattendance at incidents involving mental health consumers hasincreased in recent years. In 2007 New South Wales Policeresponded to approximately 21,000 such calls, an increasefrom 18,000 in 2004.There are concerns from police and consumer advocacy groupsabout the appropriateness of this response. In January 2008 theNSW Police Force commenced a pilot program to train a numberof Mental Health Intervention Team (MHIT) officers in betterdealing with individuals suffering from mental health relatedsymptoms (particularly those in crises) to improve police capacityto respond efficiently and safely to such incidents. This paperpresents the NSW Police MHIT model and its evaluation againstthe backdrop of international best practice in the field.