Summary
This study explores the escalating demand placed on Surrey Police as default responders to public mental health crises. Using desk research, local operational data, surveys of frontline staff, interviews, and examples of interventions, it provides the first comprehensive picture of how system failures in health and social care impact policing. The research uncovers significant time pressures, rising call volumes, challenges in interagency coordination, high emotional load, bottlenecks in decision-making, and a profound psychological impact on officers and staff.
Top finding: Officers spend extensive hours with individuals in crisis, often due to unavailable mental health professionals or ambulances, with call handlers and response officers reporting the highest sustained operational and psychological burden.
Why is it important?
Policing is increasingly filling gaps left by overstretched mental health and social care systems. As a result, officers and staff face avoidable trauma, long waits, high pressure decision making and resource diversion from crime related work. Understanding these impacts is essential for informing national policy, improving interagency practice, protecting officer wellbeing, and ensuring vulnerable people receive appropriate care from the right professionals.
Focus of Research
Identify bottlenecks in crisis response across policing, NHS and social care
Examine the emotional and psychological impact on officers and staff
Explore the mismatch between perception and reality of crisis related demand
Provide evidence for national productivity and mental health policy reform
Timeline
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2022
Project scoping and advisory group established
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2022-2023
Data analysis, force data extraction, interviews, national review integration
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2023 March – May
Primary survey delivered
Planned report launch and conference
Background
- Police forces across England and Wales have increasingly become the first port of call for mental health crises due to gaps in NHS provision
- Wait times, bed shortages, ambulance delays and out-of-hours service gaps contribute to heavy reliance on police
- National reviews highlight poor data quality, inconsistent definitions and systemic variation in recording mental health incidents
- Approximately one in five UK officers now present with PTSD/CPTSD, with trauma exposure closely linked to mental health crisis incidents
- Earlier research emphasises the importance of social need, repeat callers, and the emotional load of suicide, self-harm, vicarious trauma and crisis negotiation
How research is/was conducted (Methodology)
- Desk review of national reports, FOI data, media investigations, academic literature, census studies and productivity reviews
- Analysis of Surrey Police force level data (call volumes, Section 136 incidents, conveyance, time spent, incident origin, communication channels, seasonal/daily patterns)
- Primary survey of officers and staff across response, custody, contact and dispatch, negotiators and other roles
- Qualitative analysis of open comments on experiences, emotions, frustrations and positive elements
- Interviews with Surrey’s High Intensity Partnership Programme and practitioners in other forces
- Examination of UK and international intervention models
Partners and Funding
Conducted by Police Care UK and the University of Cambridge with Surrey Police and funded by the Wates Family Enterprise Trust. Guided by a cross-sector advisory group including the NPCC, Surrey County Council, NHS partners and mental health charities.
Results
- Mental health crisis calls to Surrey Police have risen significantly since 2019 and remain above pre-pandemic levels
- Officers increasingly transport individuals due to unavailable ambulances, with police conveyance doubling since 2019
- Average time spent with a detained individual is around 7 hours per officer at A&E (equivalent to 14 hours of officer time per incident)
- Call handlers handle the highest volume of crisis-related work and report substantial emotional strain
- Response officers spend long periods with individuals in crisis, often out of hours, with limited access to mental health professionals
- Criminality is rare in these cases; most crises relate to welfare, self-harm, missing persons, intoxication or deterioration of mental health
- Survey participants reported high feelings of helplessness, frustration, and being unprepared due to limited training
- Repeated exposure affects tolerance, decision-making confidence and emotional regulation
- Trauma impact correlates strongly with prolonged incidents, lack of information, and cumulative exposure
- Officers expressed strong demand for training in risk management, stress regulation, resilience, decision-making and interagency support
- Interagency gaps especially out-of-hours response and delays in mental health assessments are the largest operational bottlenecks
