A boy experiencing a mental health crisis had to live in a police station for two days due to a lack of psychiatric places, a police chief has revealed, condemning austerity for hitting poorer areas the hardest.
Sir David Thompson, who heads West Midlands Police, said his force, which is still short of officers and funds after cuts, was being asked to do too much and warned of rising crime as it rises. despair in the poorest areas.
Thompson has been central to key chapters of modern British policing, such as attempts to mitigate the damage of cuts imposed by the Conservative government after 2010, fighting violent crimeY efforts to bridge the gap between police and black communities.
In an interview with The Guardian to mark his retirement after 32 years in the police, Thompson also:
The teenager, who ended up living in a police station for more than two days this September, was placed in a police interrogation room. She needed a specialized mental health bed, but she couldn’t find one nationwide after she was detained under the mental health law after her arrest. Policeman believes that his stay at a police station was so inappropriate, given that he was experiencing a mental health crisis, that part of his stay was illegal.
Thompson said: “We are the most accessible public agency, so we are there all the time. We have become the agency of first contact, not the agency of last resort.”
He added: “It’s like my son lives in an interview room. Well, you know, it’s not really my job, but I’m not going to throw them out on the street, am I?
Thompson is one of the highest ranking police chiefs and is vice president of the National Police Chiefs Council.
After police budgets were cut by the Conservatives as part of austerity, Thompson led police chiefs in funding public services.
Thompson said it had hampered the fight against crime. “Let’s be really honest, we get more money out of the big cities where most of these gangs come from during austerity.”
His argument is based on his experience and last month’s report from the Institute of Fiscal Studies. “It paints a very clear picture, that the last 10 years have seen us defund large urban areas, which we know is where the reality of gangs and drug supply comes out,” he said.
He added: “I think it was a big mistake to do it that way. I don’t see why if you’re trying to address a problem, you’d take resources away from the areas where it’s most acute.”
Thompson’s concern is that the poorest areas will be hit hardest again by inflation and the cost-of-living crisis.
“I think there is a great risk that our poor communities will become poorer,” he said. “I think there is a real risk that those communities will be less healthy and have more crime.”
After 2019, the government reversed course, promising to replace 20,000 officers they had laid off. Thompson praised them for the decision, but said the extra money spent on new officers meant budgets for other key items were under great pressure. “The inflationary pressures on the forces are now dramatic,” he said.
The way the 43 local forces are funded is unfair, he added, meaning the largely rural Cumbria has more officers per capita than the West Midlands.
The demands for inspections and reporting are endless, he said: “I can’t triple my fraud department, put more money into research, go to every robbery, treat misogyny as a terrorism crime. That’s just what the inspection asked us to do in one year. You can’t just keep adding more stuff and more complexity, when money is static or going down.”
Thompson spearheaded efforts to increase black trust in police, but accepts progress has been slow and says he “absolutely” believes “bias plays a role” in why blacks experience greater use of force. by the officers. “Size and build characteristics are more significant in black men as criteria for the use of force than in other groups,” he said.
Thompson said that legal use of force was not enough and said it had to be professional, with attempts at detente. “A lot of force may be legal, but it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s legitimate,” she said. “Not only do we aim for legality, but we seek extremely high professionalism in the way we use force and search.”
Thompson said he was proud to be a cop and the good that most of them do. He responded to claims that police were wasting time “wake up,” he said. by the secretary of the interior in a speech to police chiefs earlier this month.
He said: “This constant feeling that we are somehow busy spending all our time doing these things. And the simple reality is that, the things that stand out, a Macarena or Pride events in Lincolnshireare minutes of time.”
“It bothers me that we get involved in culture wars.”
Thompson added: “How long does that take? That’s 80 microseconds of time in the amplitude of what surveillance does.”
