Police will no longer act as 'de-facto ambulances' for people in Staffordshire, chief constable says
Police in Staffordshire will no longer act as "de-facto ambulances" by taking people to hospital and spending hours with them, the county's top cop has said.
Chief Constable Chris Noble said officers could no longer afford to spend more time in A&E departments than they do in homes of domestic abuse victims.
But he insisted there would be no "cliff edge" for vulnerable people with other services – targeted to a person's specific needs – instead being asked to help out.
Mr Noble said: "I think, from a policing perspective, this is not about cutting people loose or walking away from people in need, if someone genuinely is at risk and clearly the police is the right organisation to deal with it then we will be there for people – absolutely, we will.
"But in terms of us becoming de-facto ambulances and transporting people and spending more time in A&Es than we do in the home of a domestic abuse victim – I'm just not going to do that anymore.
"We will give people proper notice, we will think about how we can make sure that we build in some checks and balances – we need to train our staff appropriately – but if I'm going to be held to account over crime and disorder, we can't be doing what we're currently doing. It's just something we can't continue to do."
The force's top cop said in a snapshot of a number of incidents, less than half required police to attend and those calls "should have been dealt with by other agencies, whether it's the ambulance service, other partners in the health service, potentially local authorities etc."
Mr Noble added: "It's not going to be a cliff edge, but something different needs to happen else we can't deliver what our core responsibilities are."
