Calls to police

‘Model has to change’ (May 31), about the Police Association wanting to stop handling ‘‘mental health issues’’, following on the London Metropolitan Police proposal to do the same, raises several issues.

The Met has had a chequered past over the years and recently at least two official reports have pointed out its institutional racism and misogyny following recent instances of its officers being found guilty of murder and rape.

Therefore many are happy to have them removed from this issue, mostly because they do more harm than good and escalate these issues, tragically in some cases. There are similar instances here.

Humberside police have done a trial of this scheme and it appears it has been a success. Crucially, however, this has been in no small part due to increased funding for mental health services to handle the increased workload.

This will have to be the case in London as well, because the mental heath services there are severely underfunded.

This is the case in New Zealand as well – core public services have been underfunded except for the police. So, ironically, police are the best funded to deal with these issues, although they are unsuited to, and unwilling to do, the role. Mark Daly, Newtown