Met police to stop attending emergency mental health calls

Met police officers spend 10,000 hours a month dealing with mental health issues, Rowley said. Photograph: Martin Godwin/The Guardian

The Metropolitan police will no longer attend emergency calls related to mental health incidents, the force’s commissioner has said.

In a letter seen by the Guardian, Sir Mark Rowley says he will order his officers not to attend thousands of calls they get every year to deal with mental health incidents.