Policing After Casey. Making other services the ‘first responders’

While the police have a range of skills for identifying crime and apprehending suspects, they are clearly not the most appropriate arm of the state for managing complex social problems which disproportionately affect marginalised communities.

‘Defunding’ the police is about investing in agencies and communities that can expertly respond to social issues, and in the longer term, preventing many of the crises that might presently require a blue light response.

A recent tragic example makes painfully clear the urgent need for change.

In the early hours of Wednesday, 12 April, a man died in Peckham, South London. The Guardian reported that the man had been shouting and threatening to jump from the balcony for many hours the previous day. The police were eventually called, and – in circumstances to be examined in an inquest – a Taser was discharged; the man fell from the building, sustaining serious injuries and later dying in hospital.

It’s a deeply upsetting story of unnecessary human suffering not least because there is a long history of men, especially black and ethnic minority men, suffering mental health crises dying in police custody – Sean Rigg, Kevin Clarke and the list goes on.

Deborah Coles, the director of Inquest, said:

Once again we see the fatal consequences of the police being first responders to people in mental health crisis and the use of force against black men. It is clear from previous deaths that the use of Tasers and force is prioritised over the care and compassion needed.

Who could disagree?

The route for reform adopted by Casey is to equip the Met with more specialist skills. Talking about police inadequacies in the areas of mental health, child protection and sexual crime, she complains about “lack of specialism, lack of training and under-resourcing”.

But more mental health and social work training will make little difference if police retain a monopoly of first response combined with the unique right to define the situation as one in which coercive force is appropriate. The pressure to opt for the latter comes precisely from the closed, authoritarian and institutionally racist, sexist and homophobic culture which Casey forensically portrays.

Our proposed route for reform is twofold.

In response to the issue raised by Deborah Coles, first response for many incidents arising from social problems should be transferred back to other branches of the state (housing, healthcare, social work) which already have the appropriate skills and can prioritise care and compassion over the use of force.

Members of the public and public bodies would be able to call for help from a wide range of such agencies through a central point of contact. In the Peckham example, neighbours could – under our proposal – call for professional welfare help hours or even days earlier.

This would of course entail properly funding social services and care for chronic mental health conditions. First responders would not have access to and would not have contemplated the use of lethal weaponry such as tasers. Police would be available only as backup and under the direction of these first responder welfare agencies.

Secondly, such reforms speak directly to the problems addressed by Casey regarding institutional racism, sexism and homophobia in the police. Reducing police role to that of backup to welfare agencies in the type of incidents under discussion here would force police to have more contact with, and work under the direction of, agencies which themselves are more diverse in ethnic and gender terms. Police officers could even take periodic sabbaticals in welfare agencies.

So reform of the police must be approached from a wider perspective than simply trying to change 'police culture' by internal reforms of better training. Only by forcing police to take seriously that they are one agency among many, and not necessarily the appropriate lead or first responder in many situations, can a more pluralistic and diverse culture within the police organisation be helped to evolve.

Jennifer Fleetwood is a senior lecturer in Sociology and John Lea is visiting professor in Sociology, both at Goldsmiths, University of London

This is the first in a series of planned articles discussing the Casey Review of the Metropolitan Police. If you are interested in submitting a piece, please contact our research director, Dr Roger Grimshaw.