Police responded to nearly 150,000 incidents involving "disturbed" people last year
Last year, the police registered 149,827 incidents “caused by people with incomprehensible or disturbed behavior.” That is an increase of 6 percent compared to 2023, the police reported on Thursday. Of the suspects arrested last year, one in five were registered as “disturbed.”
The number of incidents involving people with disturbed behavior has been rising for years. The police are spending an increasing proportion of their already scarce capacity on these reports and therefore urge the government to invest in mental healthcare.
The majority of reports involving people in mental distress involve nuisance reports, said Martin Sitalsing, police chief of the Noord-Nederland Unit and in charge of the Care & Safety portfolio at the police. “In many cases, the people we come to need help or care. Since we are not care providers, the use of the police is often not the most effective.”
The police would like to have a permanent mental healthcare professional in their control rooms, as well as with the fire brigade and ambulance services. There have been experiments with healthcare workers assessing reports, but Sitalsing told NOS that these always failed because of the question of who would cover the costs.
“Much more attention needs to be paid to help and care so that we can prevent such situations,” Sitalsing said in the police statement. “It is up to the government to give this absolute priority and to allocate sufficient funds for it.”
Some cases involving people with disturbed behavior do involve more serious crimes. “Sometimes these are very serious incidents. Think of the hostage-taking in Ede in March last year or, for example, murder or manslaughter or sexual offenses,” Sitalsing said. “In such acute situations, when people’s safety is at stake, it is our job to take action.”
But according to him, a lot of time and resources can be saved by sending the appropriate help at the appropriate time.
