I would like to attempt to slay one of the biggest fallacies in all of the debate about how the Mental Health Act should operate, not least because it often happens in connection with operational policing.  And I’m going to fail – because I know that the very proposition I’m about to tackle will lead […]

Read more "Can’t Fix This For You"

The next time the Home Office publish statistics on the use of s136 and the locations to which people are removed after use of police powers under the MHA, we should learn that it’s down in to double figures – under 100 for the whole country. Given that it was over 11,000 around 2008, this […]

Read more "Banning Custody"

Earlier this month, the prosecution of a defendant under new legislation specific to emergency services personal was was abandoned as “not in the public interest” after a a man had been charged with spitting at a police officer. The headline in the Daily Telegraph did a cracking job of conveying vagueness about the reasons behind […]

Read more "Spitting at the Police"