After fatal shootings, NSW police to shift mental health calls to health workers

New South Wales police and the state health department are expected to sign a memorandum of understanding that will shift the response to mental health incidents away from officers, as the police union demands that police no longer serve as the “default response for every crisis.”

Police Minister Yasmin Catley told union members Tuesday that the MoU is “very close to being signed.”

“The commissioner and I are working very closely with [NSW] Health to get that work done,” Catley said. “I know the workload that’s put on you as a result of being everything to everyone.”

Catley spoke at the Police Association of NSW conference alongside Premier Chris Minns and Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon.

The government is considering an approach similar to the United Kingdom’s “right person, right care” model, under which health workers, not police, attend mental health call-outs when no crime is being committed and no life is at risk.

An internal NSW police review released in September 2024 recommended adopting the UK approach, acknowledging that when officers responded to mental health incidents they were often “an escalating factor” and that experts would be better deployed.

In June 2024, a parliamentary inquiry into the state’s mental health system urged police to improve mandatory mental health training and “explore” becoming second responders, with health workers as the first contact.

Pressure for reform mounted after the 2023 deaths of Clare Nowland, Steve Pampalian, Jesse Deacon and Krista Kach during mental health distress, and intensified after public housing resident Collin Burling died last year while restrained by police after begging for help.

Minns suggested Tuesday that announcements could come soon regarding mental health call-outs and, separately, prisoner transport.

“I’m conscious of the challenges you are facing every day, with a broad mission, with more responsibilities, with a desperate need for more officers in the field,” Minns said in Wollongong.

“We’re hearing that loud and clear, and we have to say more, and will say more in the near future,” he said.

NSW opposition leader Kellie Sloane, who also spoke at the conference, said it was “beyond time that we had a concrete response from the government on this.”

“Officers are plugging too many gaps in a mental health system that is in crisis, and that is not your job,” Sloane told the police association.

Police Association President Kevin Morton said Tuesday: “We need mental health reforms that stop police becoming the default response for every crisis.”

Morton criticized Corrective Services, saying police had become “Uber drivers for those in custody.” He added: “Corrections NSW are the experts in prisoner transport and it is time they took that role on once and for all.”

Morton also called for court reforms, stating: “In dispensing justice, it is wrong to expect those charged to languish in cells due to the current court sitting hours. Then expect our members to take the responsibility and consequences of those prisoners being held in not fit-for-purpose complexes.”

Under the Minns government, NSW is incarcerating a record number of people, driven by major bail reforms in response to domestic violence. The prison population exceeded 14,000 in March.

The prison population grew by 1,200 in the four months to March, more than the increase over the previous four years, according to data released last week by the Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research.

The surge began in November, one month after Lanyon became commissioner.

Bocsar data indicate the increase stems from greater enforcement activity by NSW police, primarily related to domestic violence, rather than a rise in crime.

Catley told officers during her speech: “You’d have to be fair to say that the corrections minister might think that you’re actually doing too good a job, because his jails are packed, and that is absolutely attributable to your efforts.”

Lanyon said Tuesday that crime is falling or stable across most major categories, but added that “perceptions of crime” are as important as statistics.

“The results show that our police, despite their challenges, are having a significant impact, but perceptions of crime matter as much as the statistics,” Lanyon said. “Not only do people deserve to be safe, they need to feel safe.”

“Over the next two years, our focus on crime prevention and public safety, in particular organised crime, youth and regional crime, domestic and family violence, and road trauma, will be relentless,” the commissioner said.

Lanyon acknowledged “acute” staffing shortages but noted that “for the first time in many, many years, more officers are joining than leaving.”

Minns announced at the conference that a fourth annual class will be run at the police academy in Goulburn to increase recruitment by 30% in an effort to fill vacancies.