Police Watchdog Finds Force Should Have Flagged Mental Health Services After Family's Call

A police force should have alerted mental health services after a family raised concerns about their son, but instead advised them to call a locksmith, the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) has found.

The watchdog's findings point to a gap between the family's evident need for support and the response they received, raising questions about how such calls are assessed and routed when they involve concerns about a person's mental wellbeing.

Watchdog's Assessment

According to the IOPC, the appropriate response in this instance would have involved flagging the case to mental health services, a step that did not occur. Instead, the family was directed toward a practical but unrelated solution, leaving the underlying welfare concern unaddressed at that point of contact.

Cases like this one are often used by oversight bodies to press for changes in how frontline responders identify and escalate situations involving mental health risk, particularly when the person expressing concern is a family member rather than the individual involved directly.

The IOPC's finding adds to a broader ongoing conversation about the interaction between policing and mental health services, and about ensuring that calls involving welfare concerns are met with responses suited to the needs being described rather than more limited practical fixes.