Andy Park: Mental health experts are calling for urgent changes to the way police respond to acute episodes of mental illness, following a Four Corners investigation into police brutality. The ABC this week revealed alleged and proven cases of police misconduct, including instances where police were charged after assaulting people experiencing psychotic and mental health episodes. Just a warning, some people might find parts of this story distressing. Here’s Bridget Fitzgerald.
Bridget Fitzgerald: This footage, captured by police body-worn cameras in 2023, shows a woman sitting naked on a nature strip on a Western Sydney street.
Archive: I’m terrified of you people. Go away!
Bridget Fitzgerald: The woman is Jodie Knott. She lived with schizophrenia and was experiencing a psychotic episode. What happens next is a distressing, sickening assault. It was broadcast as part of an ABC Four Corners investigation on Monday.
Archive: Let her go. Let her go. Oh. Oh. F*** me.
Bridget Fitzgerald: The two officers, Nathan Black and Timothy Trouch, later pleaded guilty to common assault. Jodie Knott was initially charged herself, but the case was thrown out. She died of cancer 18 months after the attack. Mental health advocates say the Four Corners report, which also featured an alleged incident against a woman experiencing a manic episode, puts a spotlight on policing and mental illness.
Sarah Logan: Watching it was harrowing.
Bridget Fitzgerald: Sarah Logan is on the board of the Australian Society of Psychiatrists as a lived experience director. She says mental health emergencies need a health response, not a punitive approach.
Sarah Logan: Mental health clinicians and paramedics are trained to understand symptoms, assess risks, communicate therapeutically and reduce distress.
Bridget Fitzgerald: A report published in 2024 after a New South Wales Upper House inquiry into community and outpatient mental health care recommended comprehensive mental health training for police officers in consultation with consumers and carers. It also recommended police should work with partner agencies in responding to mental health emergencies, a point that was supported by the New South Wales government. The Australian Society of Psychiatrists is calling on the state government to implement the change. But aside from the proven instances of police brutality, experts say the broader question of how to respond to acute episodes of mental illness is a problem right across the country. Chris Maylea is a professor of law at La Trobe University.
Chris Maylea: The police know that they are not well equipped to be responding to people in mental distress and it consumes an enormous amount of police resources.
Bridget Fitzgerald: Chris Maylee says there are instances where a police response to a mental illness episode does involve a clinician, but it’s patchy.
Chris Maylea: There’s a 2024 internal police, New South Wales police report that says 16 out of 57 police area commands and districts have PACER teams, which is where a clinician goes along with the police, but there’s no 24 hour coverage anywhere in New South Wales. So it’s not so much that different jurisdictions are doing it better, but we do have models that we know are better than just police responses, but they’re not widely or consistently deployed.
Bridget Fitzgerald: He says when a response is clinician led, a crisis is much more likely to be de-escalated.
Chris Maylea: Police are trained for safety, control, law enforcement. Mental distress requires a very different skill set. It requires compassion, it requires time and it requires the person who’s responding to form a real human connection with the person who’s experiencing distress.
Bridget Fitzgerald: Both Sarah Logan and Chris Maylea say above all, the system needs better early intervention, more support for people experiencing mental illness so they don’t end up in crisis in the first place. In a statement, a New South Wales government spokesperson says the Department of Health is working with New South Wales police to develop a model to ensure people in psychological distress receive support that is responsive to their health needs. New South Wales police did not respond to a request for comment.
Andy Park: Bridget Fitzgerald there. If that story raised any concerns for you or anyone you know, you can call Lifeline on 13 11 14.