Police will introduce new, higher thresholds for attending mental health callouts, with changes to be phased in from November 2024 and completed by September 2025, Police Commissioner Andrew Coster today confirmed.
The Commissioner announced a programme of change to begin reducing police resourcing of mental health calls for service, to relieve demand pressures.
Police have formally notified Health New Zealand authorities and stakeholders that the higher thresholds will ensure Police prioritise events where there is an immediate risk to life and safety, he said.
Events that fall short of that threshold will not be attended by Police, but rather directed to more appropriate services.
“It is important to be clear that Police will still attend any jobs where there is an immediate risk to life or safety – that has not changed,” Commissioner Coster says.
“It is well documented that mental health demand is increasing and our challenges in meeting this demand are ongoing and impacting our ability to service other needs in our community.”
Mental health demand accounted for 11% of calls to the Police Emergency Communications Centre in the year to May 2024.
“Police receives one mental health-related call every seven minutes, taking up about half a million hours of Police frontline time per year,” said the Commissioner.
“Of those events, only five percent had a criminal element and 11% of calls are coded P1 and are given a priority response.
“It has been clear to me for some time, that this is simply not sustainable and prevents us from keeping other areas of the community safe.
“It impacts on our ability to deliver core policing services.
“As well as impacting our frontline, it also creates bottlenecks at the Emergency Communication Centres – meaning they can’t always respond to every call in a timely manner.
“To help alleviate the high level of demand on Police, we will be phasing a reduction of Police resources to mental health events that do not have a crime or high level of risk attached to them.”
He said the programme of change will be rolled out over four phases beginning in November this year with Police introducing a higher threshold of risk before committing staff to responding to requests for mental health transportation, or attendance at mental health facilities.
“In January next year, Police staff will conduct handovers with Health staff, and depart after a maximum one hour unless there is a risk to life or safety.”
“This will eventually reduce to 15 minutes later in the year.
“Also starting from next year, we are tightening rules around our custody suites, which we do not believe are appropriate for conducting mental health assessments.
“Another area that has added to our demand is the lower threshold for searching for people reported missing from mental health facilities.
“We will need to work with Health agencies to better manage this with higher thresholds.
“We anticipate there will be other areas where we can better manage our response to mental health calls, and we will be assessing those areas as we progress this work.
“We want those experiencing mental health distress to get the right help at the right time from the right people. They do not always want or need a Police car turning up or for Police Officers to sit with them for hours in emergency departments, further adding to the stigma of what is already a very difficult time.
“Immediately, there will be no changes, and we will continue to respond to mental health callouts as we always have. The changes will take a phased approach as we want to support our health partners by giving them time to adapt.”
Today’s announcement has been welcomed by Mental Health Minister, Matt Doocey and Police Minister, Mark Mitchell.
“This Government is committed to improving mental health outcomes for New Zealanders. For too long, those seeking crisis support have often been met by a uniformed officer, which can cause further distress,” says Mr Doocey.
“People in mental distress are not criminals. Those seeking assistance deserve a mental health response, rather than a criminal justice response.”
Mr Mitchell said a significant increase in mental health demand, with Police being the default first port of call, was no longer sustainable.
“I want to acknowledge our Police staff who do an outstanding job with great empathy, but they are not trained mental health experts,” said Mr Mitchell.
“Ultimately, we want to ensure people are getting the right care, at the right time, from the right people, and that our frontline officers have more time to focus on core policing and delivering the services expected of them to keep communities safe.
“The shift requires a careful, measured approach and I am very supportive and assured of the joined-up efforts Police and Health are taking to get there.”
