I take people to hospital at least once a week every week under sec 136 . Often , it's the same people . Over and over and over .
Even if police had done a PNC check , exactly what do you think that would have achieved ? She would have been taken to the hospital . Now lets look at the practical side of this . How long do you think I have stood with a patient , even a violent , volatile , seriously agitated one, waiting for the crisis team or doctor to come and evaluate them ? 30 minutes ? A hour ? Two ? No . Last week , I was in a and e for six hours , waiting for someone who had gone running down the road naked and armed with a fuckoff great knife to be assessed .Six hours . With 4 other colleagues , because he was SO unpredictable , and hospital security staff REFUSED to help . 5 colleagues , from a team of ten , for virtually a whole shift . And all the while listening to reports coming out of serious domestic violence , road accidents , and others of people urgently needing our help , whilst we're sitting in a and e . Eventually , the crisis team come along , and he gets taken to the ward .
Next day , another call . Male running down the road naked . Guess who ? He'd got let out less than 24 hours later . Cue round two , except this time it involved CS gas and two officers assaulted .
How many calls a shift do you think police get called to ? On average , on my borough , around 70 in eight hours that need officers deploying to. Of that , roughly 10 will involve mental health . If we took everyone to hospital , and stayed there until they were assessed ( and remember being assessed does not guarantee them either a bed OR even treatment ) , we would literally have NO officers on the street for anything else . None .