An alarming response from Andy Prophet, Chief Constable of Hertfordshire Constabulary that evidences the 'Right Care, Right Person' policy is based upon the mistaken assumption that policing is solely based upon "fighting crime".
At the core of this petition, and the article recently published within The Times newspaper, is the emerging evidence that 'Right Care, Right Person' is being applied inconsistently across police forces throughout the U.K and the threshold for immediate risk to life and serious harm is not universally understood, leading to devastating consequences for some.
Whilst it is correct to state suicide may still happen even where the police have used their legal powers to safeguard a vulnerable person; it is also correct to state it might not.
The argument that the police are understaffed, underfunded, and overstretched is recognised; there is no one arguing to the contrary. All frontline services find themselves in the same situation.
The Mental Health Act (1983) remains unchanged, in that the police are still the only agents of the state with the legal power to take decisive safeguarding action for a person with ill mental health in an emergency. Article 2 of the Human Rights Act (1998) guarantees a right to life, which is the threshold the architects of 'Right Care, Right Person' have consistently reassured the public will be the basis of police response. This commitment was given in parliament by Chief Constables in September 2023. Despite this, there is an emerging body of evidence that suggests the policy is proving problematic.
The solution needs to be a joint and adequately resources approach, with universal thresholds and a change in law. The rhetoric of "it's mental HEALTH not mental CRIME" needs to be challenged. Policing is not and never will be solely about crime; there may well be an over reliance on police forces that could be managed better elsewhere, but that will never be the whole picture and simply withdrawing and refusing to acknowledge obligations enshrined in law is an evident cause for concern