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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
National
Helen Pidd North of England editor

How Humberside police’s pioneering policy on mental health calls paid off

Lee Freeman, the chief constable of Humberside police
Lee Freeman, the chief constable of Humberside police, says the scheme ‘really did allow us to get back to basics’. Photograph: Patrick Mateer

Where Hull leads, London follows. At least, that is the case when it comes to a radical new approach to policing that has led to the Humberside constabulary achieving the highest arrest and crime detection rates in the country – by refusing to attend most mental health calls.

When a letter from the Metropolitan police commissioner was leaked to the Guardian this week warning that from September his officers would no longer attend unnecessary mental health calls, Lee Freeman had a jolt of recognition.

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