At the end of the day the buck stops right in this building here. Everything that happens that’s bigger than anybody else can deal with (Dylan, 246-248).
It would be fair to assume that the last link in the chain of service provision for those with mental illness in the community would be constructed as the resolution link, one where the individual was able to access and benefit from the chain of service provision. However, when police officers are positioned as the ‘last link’, the understanding produced was that community mental health agencies were unable to provide services and resolution to the presenting problem, and instead the police had to take up this position. Here, the police are constructed as the ‘last resort’ in a number of (more appropriate) service providers that could have adopted this ‘last link’ position, but were constrained from doing so by systemic and institutional practices.
The first and last links are intimately connected because the first link can often become the last link when the chain is broken. This happens when mental health crisis services do not respond to the officer’s request for assistance or are unable to take responsibility for the individual through their services.
Analysis 131
This exactly how police work, if there’s a problem out there that nobody else can solve it’s the police that step in and deal with the crisis. But often what I’m left feeling is that we’ve dealt with the crisis, so we’ve stopped someone being hurt or getting, you know, or hurting someone or whatever and then-, But there’s no-, That’s it. That seems to be the end of, you know, everyone goes “Err, it’s not our problem” (laughs). Yip and so police are left to try and deal with it and whatever. Well, we don’t really have the facility to deal with it and that’s the problem (Jarrod, 25-33).
Through the understanding that there are often no further alternatives to police practices in situations of mental health crisis, the first link becomes the last link and the police are isolated as the only available and accessible responding service provider for those with mental illness in the community. The police respond to the crisis and once the crisis
situation is, to some degree, resolved there is no further action or service provision offered and the entire chain of service provision for those with mental illness in the community dissolves, positioning the attending police officers as acting pseudo-mental health workers as they are the only service provider offering assistance to a situation that involves mental illness.
It makes me think that police are the last stop. We are, pretty much, the only 24 hour emergency service now (Matthew, 35-36).
The skills and duties expected from police in mental health crisis situations often conflict with police officers’ understandings of the duties associated with their domain of expertise
132 Analysis (as discussed in the ‘first link’) and also raises questions related to the adequacy and
efficiency of mental health service provision in the community. In the previous quote, ‘last stop’ suggests a chain of events that should be present prior to crisis point, but is absent. One can only be situated at this ‘last stop’ if there were steps or links beforehand that should have been travelled through that are either missing or were unable to efficiently address the problem. By conceptualising police as this ‘last stop’, the understanding produced is that previous links (agencies) have been unable to provide efficient service to circumvent mental health crisis and suggests a lack of proactive or pre-emptive effort on the part of the mental health system to prevent such occurrences. In effect, in this construction police are the last link in a chain of events that does not exist, but has the potential and the need to be present.
I mean, we’re dealing them the week after that and then, you know, the fact that we keep dealing with them and nobody’s got their medication right and nobody’s got-, They don’t seem to be getting any help (Dylan, 557-560).
Police as the ‘last link’ produces criticism of existing services that have potential to provide specialist assistance for those with mental illness, but where those services fail to do so the police are required to fill the mental health service gap.
But they leave it to us to deal with and it’s their problem (Christine, 239).
But the actual dealing with the problem of the mentally ill-, You can’t get mental health services 24 / 7, especially here so in [Town Name], so the police are pretty
Analysis 133
much the last line of defence and we’re the ones called out. We’re not trained in it, we know very little about it other than what your experience teaches you and it’s kind of a-, It’s not a very satisfactory situation. We’re dealing with problems that we really have no expertise in. Yes, I could deal with incidents but the thing that strikes me most of all is, you know, we’re used as the stop-gap (Matthew, 40-48).
Statements such as ‘they leave it to us’ and ‘we’re used as the stop-gap’ suggest mental health service agencies could provide assistance, but instead often utilise police services to provide institutional support and control. The understanding produced by the police response to this utilisation is that the police are more dedicated to attempt to resolve any situation the community requires them to, despite their limited knowledge and training in such areas, in comparison to other service provision agencies. This actually locates police in a powerful position of service provision for those with mental illness because in this last link, where perhaps no other agency has been motivated to intervene, police have the position and obligation to be the service provider. The mental health agency’s inability to accept the individual into their services leaves the police with no other option than to proceed forward with that person, regardless of whether they believe mental illness is an issue, and although it is an undesirable position in regards to what services it appears those with mental illness require, it is none-the-less a position of strength, agency, motivation and active service provision.
Where this motivation and responsibility becomes problematic is when the police are unable to provide a service that would appear to address the concern at hand. Constructing police as a link in a chain produces several distinct ‘points’ of service provision that have
134 Analysis demarcated demands and skills required. When this chain breaks, creating a singular point
for service provision, it becomes problematic for police to assist in a manner that addresses the specific requirements of the situation. While motivated to provide assistance, it then becomes impossible to provide the kind of assistance that is required at the corresponding link to resolve the core issue. As discussed earlier, the construction of police duties locate the most appropriate position in the chain of service provision at the first link. In the middle link, while not desirable, the police are still able to offer services that fit into constructions of police duties of control and safety. In this last link the situation becomes more complicated and difficult because of the understanding that they lack the skills and options required to provide a satisfactory resolution to the presenting problem. Unlike the middle link, where duties are constructed as waiting for eventual service provision, in this last link there is an understanding that if the individual receives no mental health
assistance at this location, they will receive no help at all, except where criminal charges can be laid.
The police are getting called, you know, “Take him away!”...”We can’t!” (Laughs) “Why can’t you?” “I can’t. I know you’re stressed. I know it’s difficult. I just cannot-, I don’t have the power to take him away from you sorry” (Laughs) “But you must! I want you to take him” (Laughs) “Well, it doesn’t work like that” (Matthew, 431- 435).
But nobody’s given us any other options to take it forward from there in a safe manner (Matthew, 123-125).
Analysis 135 Motivation to provide resolution may result from the construction of police in society as
the agency that has the authority and ability to address any and all public concerns. Police are employed by the government to enforce the rules and laws of the land and also ensure public safety and wellbeing. The assumption underlying such a position is that any point of concern or issue of public safety and distress could be, and should be, a police matter regardless of the nature of the presenting situation.
Because we’re seen as a-, You know, you see the uniforms and the authoritarian figures that you should be in there and you should be able to make all these decisions for everyone (Nathan, 158-161).
Just because we’re in a blue uniform we’re expected to be able to deal with any situation that crops up (Jane, 376-377).
It ends up it always falling back on us because we’re everyone’s everyman type thing. So if you don’t know who else to call you always call the cops (Dylan, 232- 234).
We’re a fall-back role for just about everything (Christine, 225).
Statements produced during interviews addressing public constructions of police as omnipotent served to attend to these misconceptions and to offer an alternative
understanding of police duties. By locating police as a link in a chain of events that involves various other government agencies, the police are able to specialise and limit their abilities and obligations, producing a specific position to adopt in which they are able to meet expectations and avoid criticism for service provision beyond that particular position.
136 Analysis
Obviously there’s a lot of people, as I said before, believe that we’re there and we should be solving everything which is, you know, that’s not entirely true. Although they do solve a lot of stuff, it’s there to put measures in place until someone gets to speak to them properly (Nathan, 328-331).
The construction of police occupying various links in the chain of service provision produces knowledge regarding what police duties should consist of and also where police resources and services are inappropriate. It communicates to the listener the locations of assuming responsibility other agencies and service providers should enter, alongside justification of why police should not be expected to perform certain ‘roles’. The first link, that of crisis resolution and handing over to mental health services, is the appropriate link for police to occupy. The middle link is a position that the police can provide service for, despite it constructed as a ‘waste’ of police resources. The last link is only occupied by police when other service providers ‘break the chain’. This removes responsibility for perceived failings in service provision for those with mental illness from the police and indicates that the middle and last link locations are where mental health services need to be improved in order to provide adequate and coordinated successful mental health care in the community.
If the ‘first link’ is the most appropriate link for police to occupy and the point at which the individual’s involvement with the criminal justice system should cease, it can then be asked: what barriers are present in the current system of service provision for those with mental illness that constrain the ability for coordination between the various agencies
Analysis 137 active in the community? What institutional practices produce these barriers and how are
they understood and experienced by police officers?