Police Scotland call outs mostly from vulnerable people at 'last resort'
dailyrecord.co.ukCops are at risk of burnout as they struggle to cope with the soaring demand of mental health callouts, MSPs have been warned.
Around 80 per cent of yearly calls to Police Scotland are from vulnerable people making “last resort” emergency calls. John Hawkins, assistant chief constable of local policing, told Holyrood's justice committee today that fewer than 20 per cent of calls to the national constabulary resulted in a crime being recorded.
He said: "There are 3.2 million calls coming into police every year – a call every nine seconds. Less than 20 per cent result in a crime being recorded now."Overwhelmingly the calls for the service on policing are in the vulnerability space, including mental health."That has changed hugely over my service.
Police wasn’t about that once upon a time. It was around crime and criminality much more clearly."And he called for a collaborative response between governments and all emergency services in tackling mental health concerns of the public.It comes as MSPs heard how police officers were struggling to cope with the demand, due to insufficient powers and training to help vulnerable individuals.Calls often surge late on a Friday afternoon as other services, such as GPs and social work, wind down for the weekend, the committee heard.It often results in vulnerable people being taken to hospital in handcuffs surrounded by police officers, because there is often no other support available, Hawkins said.David Hamilton, chair of the Scottish Police Federation, told MSPs it was having a "devastating" impact on the mental health of officers, whose resources are being stretched thin.He said: “The challenges which are coming through from our surveys is that people are burning out because they
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