Policing Mental Health Beyond Crisis: Insights from Ethnographic Research

• In Event: Vulnerability, Policing and the Limits of a Public Health Approach

Abstract

Police officers routinely encounter individuals experiencing mental health vulnerabilities in the course of their work, yet much research and policy focus on crisis situations, overlooking how officers manage everyday, non-crisis encounters. These interactions often fall into a 'grey area' of policing, where officers must determine whether police should get involved, and if so, how best to respond. Recent policy shifts, such as Right Care, Right Person (RCRP), seek to reduce police involvement in non-emergency mental health-related calls, by shifting responsibility to health and social care services. However, officers remain frontline responders in many situations where they must make on-the-spot decisions in a resource-constrained environment with unclear protocols on roles and responsibilities within the multi-agency setting. Within this context, this research draws on 12 months of ethnographic fieldwork with two police forces in England, selected for their contrasting urban and rural settings. Data includes over 120 hours of observational research alongside frontline police officers (e.g., response teams, neighbourhood officers, custody officers) and interviews with 16 senior police officers. Findings will provide insights into how officers interpret and navigate mental health-related incidents in routine policing, considering their implications for policy, practice, and future research, with the aim of informing more effective police responses.

Authors

• Oznur Yardimci, University of York

• Martin Webber, University of York

• Elizabeth Hughes, Glasgow Caledonian University

• Andrew Papworth, University of York

• Tobias Kammersgaard, Aarhus University