From the little I have read and looked into so far, as well as the article posted on the politics thread, I do think a different approach is required. I mirror your thoughts that the modern police officer has a multitude of roles they are expected to be. Each one, they are also expected to perform at a very high standard, continually under a watchful/monitored eye from all areas of society. It simply is far too much to expect of them.
I only know about 5 people personally who are in the constabulary today, in various roles; three of them as PCs. I know that they find their job increasingly harder to do (just in general) and they have admitted that they aren't qualified to do all that is asked/expected of them. That is only a very small model so it would be interesting to see what others thoughts/conversations with officers they know or indeed those who are officers themselves.
We also know that in the UK our public services have faced continued cuts, whilst still being asked to perform their multitude of expected duties to the same level. One thing I have noticed and I can't speak for all but even amongst these continued cuts, the P&CC (Police & Crime Commisioner) costing on my council tax bill has increased year on year
Now that money may go somewhere else but my thinking is that it must end up used by the "police" somewhere along the lines. It's slightly away from topic I know but it's an observation I find strange considering the police have faced cuts. Is it purely to substitute the cuts from central government and so is topped up via the local authority?
I definitely believe that much more needs to be spent in areas regarding mental health and trained specialists in de-escalation. This shouldn't be another "skill" that the police have to fully understand.
There is no harm in having knowledge and training but I have witnessed first hand scenarios where the police have been completely out of their depth regarding such situations. They did not know how to talk to the individual whereby they were not further agitated/distressed. In all instances the officer became an agitator. I personally had to step between an officer and the individual to then explain on behalf of the person with mental health issues, that they indeed are registered as a mental health outpatient. The response from that particular officer was a disappointing one. It seemed they hadn't received any de-escalation training. The three core values of "Listen, Hear, Understand" were vacant.
Again, this actually isn't a dig when we look at it from the outside, it highlights the very issues where an officer is expected to assess that (and many more) scenario, take action professionally and understand everything that is going on in that very moment. I don't think the modern officer is equipped with the resources or capacity to do so at the highest level and just getting out a baton is no longer the kind of treatment that is acceptable today when concerning scenarios regarding mental health. Whereas if there were highly trained specialists (similar to say a crisis team) that could be sent to that situation then the police could concentrate on other, some may say, more important issues (for them).
I'm not qualified enough to come up with a solution (I hear the TEFers scoff) and the comments above are only from my own limited experiences. But they are real experiences nonetheless and they do highlight misgivings as far as I'm concerned. I don't know how we go about or where we start implementing changes to our constabulary for the better all round. The mental health element is only one of many factors where changes could/should happen but I'd be interested to hear others experiences, either as members of public or officers (esp. existing ones). Maybe even in our little TEF bubble here, we can correlate the experiences and differences to understand better where those changes might need to be targeted and actioned?
I certainly agree with Rob that we should be able to discuss and debate this without it becoming heavily cyclical or destructive.
Bear in mind, I've written this at 2.15am so if there are some inconsistencies (me? no way, shock) then I'm putting my hands up and owning those while it's fresh in the mind. Plus i can't be jacked to edit it.
As for Robocop. I prefer Robocod (yep Amiga, James Pond days, Aquatic Games wasn't bad too)