“More people are being detained by police under the Mental Health Act as Psychiatric services struggle to cope” says Jacqui Wise in the cover story of the British Medical Journal of 18^th March 2017.

Statistics tell us that deaths in custody are up by 21%.
Self-inflicted deaths are up by 13%.
In the female estate, the number has doubled from 4 to 8 in this 12 month period.
Self-harm incidents up by 26%.
Individuals self-harming up 23%
Assaults up by 34%.
Assaults on staff up 43%.
Natural cause deaths up 17%, explained by the ageing population.
5 apparent homicides, down from 7 in the same period of the previous year

Could there be a co-relation between the facts stated in the first and the second paragraph?

“The police to an extent have always been used as an emergency mental health service” says Michael Brown, a police inspector. He adds that police receive little formal training in managing patients with mental health problems. “A highly agitated person may be experiencing Serotonin Syndrome due to the mismanagement of their antidepressant medications. The signs are subtle and most police officers won’t be able to pick up on that. We need to have a proper debate about the role of the police in this area.”

Ref:

Safety in Custody Statistics 2016: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/562897/safety-in-custody-bulletin.pdf#page=6
Blog about Mental health and the Criminal Justice system:
https://mentalhealthcop.wordpress.com/
Serotonin Syndrome:
https://patient.info/doctor/serotonin-syndrome