“Vixen 20, can we get an update on 20’s job?  SAAS requested 75 minutes ago but they still haven’t arrived.”

“ComCen Vixen 20, SAAS send their apologies: they advise they will literally be hours.  Sorry.”

This exchange is not fiction.  It is common on the front line, where the demand on police to respond to mental-health incidents is overwhelming.  And that demand is growing, to the extent that other genuine taskings go without a police response for unacceptable lengths of time.  This, of course, is no fault of our members.

Often the case is that response patrols and district policing teams are waiting roadside for ambulances or, under the Mental Health Act, driving a detainee to hospital.  Otherwise, they’re waiting for hours in an emergency department for a health professional to assess a mental-health detainee.

But those assessments are rarely high on the triage scale, and that extends the wait times for police in emergency departments.  Releasing police as soon as possible should be, but is not, a priority, despite health workers’ best intentions.

The frequent requirement to perform roles for which other government agencies are responsible – is intensifying the already excruciating demand on police.  When members are expected to act simultaneously as police officers and health-care professionals, there are simply not enough police, to police.

Members are working under relentless pressure and face far greater scrutiny and expectation than ever before.

They do what they need to do to get the job done on a thin blue line stretched to breaking point.  Despite their best efforts, the list of pending events grows longer, response times increase and, in emergencies, the lack of available back-up jeopardizes officer safety.  Community safety can also be at risk.

SAPOL introduced the current metropolitan district policing model in March 2020.  But, in the current policing environment, members spend excessive lengths of time waiting for ambulances and ferrying, and waiting with, mental-health detainees.

With their well-known can-do attitude, police almost always make bad systems work.  And this is no different.  In fact, this is a prime example of a broken system that demands consideration – and a solution.

A recent corporate training document called Mental Health Response was circulated across the organization.  It asserted that police responses to mental-health incidents were a significant workload factor.

It also referred to SAPOL’s reliance on other agencies for those responses and the challenges that flow accordingly.

The document apparently asserts that, in a mental-health scenario, handing over responsibility for a detainee is an issue of negotiation with SAAS.  That means that if SAAS considers itself at risk, or likewise the public or the person suffering a mental-health episode, responsibility remains with SAPOL.

Police involvement in mental-health incidents should be restricted to compliance with legislative obligations and intervention, and to ensure public safety when a serious risk to an individual or others is assessed as current or imminent.

The onus is on SAPOL to advocate for inter-agency policy, procedures and protocols that support policing and direct our finite police resources to where they are most needed.

I suspect little, if any, public support would exist for the practice of police officers acting as a transport service for compliant victims of patients with mental ill health or sitting for hours in hospital EDs.

The support of protective security officers is an obvious part of the solution.  Appropriate legislation would enable them to perform functions like hospital guard duties.

An experienced senior SAPOL manager recently remarked: “Mental health taskings present a huge drain on the front line and Health are not helping – they are trying to draw SAPOL further in when we need to be pushing back and getting further out.”

SA Health, SA Ambulance, SAPOL and the Royal Flying Doctor Service developed the Mental Health and Emergency Services Memorandum of Understanding (MHESMOU) in 2010.  It was to provide “an agreed framework for agencies involved in the care and treatment of people who have a mental illness or mental disorder”.

It stipulated that “the use of SAPOL resources shall be considered an option of last resort, to ensure the safety of the individual and all others involved.”

Another key statement was that “the primary responsibility for the safe assessment, transport and treatment of people with a mental illness lies with health professionals”.

Operational police know they spend copious time dealing with health-related events.

The Police Association understands that SA Health, as secretariat and author, is developing a new iteration of the 2010 MHESMOU, which might place a greater onus on police officers.

The association also understands that this proposed iteration fails to ensure that SAPOL remains an agency of last resort and, instead, drags it further into the complexity of mental-health treatment and patient care.

Given that other agencies do not comply with the existing conditions of the current MOU, imagine how things will worsen when these same agencies have more scope to influence SAPOL actions.

And not to be forgotten in this debate is the impact on police who, working in regional and remote environments with limited SAPOL resources, are spread even thinner.

The Police Association is determined to critically examine and influence SAPOL strategies, policies and procedures that affect members’ working conditions.  In this instance, we want to ensure that a broken, failing system is not replaced by an even worse one.

Pragmatism and common-sense decision-making should prevail.  SAPOL leadership should hold other agencies to account and push back to enforce compliance with conditions and timeframes prescribed in the current MOU.