Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey said for too long, people who had been seeking crisis support had often been met by a uniformed officer which could cause further distress.
“People in mental distress are not criminals,” he said.
“Those seeking assistance deserve a mental health response, rather than a criminal justice response.”
“Ultimately, we want to ensure people are getting the right care, at the right time, from the right people, and that our frontline officers have more time to focus on core policing and delivering the services expected of them to keep communities safe,” Doocey said.
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Police did an outstanding job with “great empathy” but were not trained mental health experts.
“The shift requires a careful, measured approach and I am very supportive and assured of the joined-up efforts Police and Health are taking to get there.”
The Herald reported earlier this year the number of mental health events police officers were attending has soared by more than 150% over the past decade.
Figures for the last financial year showed officers attended more than 77,000 mental health events of which the vast majority were low to moderate risk in safety and did not require a police presence. Officials wrote in one ministerial briefing previously reported by the Herald that officers would sometimes sit for hours with distressed people in Emergency Departments.
Police Commissioner: ‘Simply not sustainable’
Police Commissioner Andrew Coster said mental health demand accounted for 11% of calls to the police emergency communication centre in the year to May 2024.
Police received one mental health-related call every seven minutes, taking up about half a million hours of police frontline time per year, he said.
“Of those events, only 5% had a criminal element and 11% of calls are coded P1 and are given a priority response,” Coster said.
“It has been clear to me for some time, that this is simply not sustainable and prevents us from keeping other areas of the community safe.”
Health NZ chief executive Margie Apa said the changes were about “getting the balance right” and there were times when a health response was more desirable.
“For example, the potential stigma for a distressed person of waiting in ED for a mental health assessment can be exacerbated if they are accompanied by Police.”
Apa said one of the factors that needed to be considered as part of the changes was the ongoing mental health workforce shortages.
“Health NZ is working with clinical experts, ED representatives, health and safety specialists, security staff and others to put a robust operational plan in place.”
Ministers and officials were starting to push for a transition to health services when Labour was in office, with then-Police Minister Stuart Nash in March last year telling then-Health Minister Ayesha Verrall that his preference was for police to be involved only if there was an “immediate risk” to safety.
Labour’s mental health spokesperson Ingrid Leary said police should remain involved in 111 callouts until the Government could guarantee safety won’t be compromised.
“Matt Doocey is playing Russian Roulette by agreeing to roll out a new emergency response system for mental health callouts that doesn’t involve police before having all the pieces in place to ensure safety of people and first responders,” she said.
“Mental health professionals are on record warning that police should remain involved in 111 callouts until a new multi-agency response is up and running.”
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Police Association responds: ‘Very positive’
Police Association president Chris Cahill welcomed the news, saying it had been a long-time coming and something the association had wanted to happen for some time.
He said police officers had ended up “almost by default” responding to low and moderate mental health call-outs and that was not appropriate.
“We think it is a very positive announcement and it has the benefit of people getting the right care.”
Earlier this year, Cahill had said the handover process was taking too long, stressing responding to such call-outs was the responsibility of the health authorities, not police.
“People in mental distress are not criminals. Police should only be involved when there is a risk to someone’s safety. They cannot sustain the demand that is happening and be continually pulled away from core policing.”
Julia Gabel is a Wellington-based political reporter. She joined the Herald in 2020 and has most recently focused on data journalism.
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Jamie Ensor is a political reporter in the NZ Herald Press Gallery team based at Parliament. He was previously a TV reporter and digital producer in the Newshub Press Gallery office.
