IPCA report ‘pretty annoying’

A QUEENSTOWN father says he is disappointed with a ‘‘soft’’ official report into his son’s detention by police for a mental health assessment in October last year.

The Independent Police Conduct Authority yesterday found police acted unlawfully but that their actions were reasonable in the circumstances.

‘‘It’s one of those ‘sixofone, halfadozen of the other, nobody’s guilty kind of things’, which is pretty annoying,’’ the father said of the report.

‘‘I think it does show it was handled wrongly, but it’s a pretty soft report, to be honest.’’

The IPCA said the police did not have legal authority to detain the man, whom it calls Mr X, in the Queenstown Police Station cells.

Mr X had called Lifeline, just before midnight, to say he had attempted suicide, and it in turn called the police.

Finding him distressed and agitated, police took him away.

Mr X last year told Mountain Scene that ‘‘I should have been medically assessed straight away’’.

His father said yesterday police should have brought along a support person and also knocked on his and his wife’s door, which was right next door.

‘‘They should have woken us up and got us to calm him down.’’

The father also noted police communications gave St John Ambulance Service the wrong address for his son so they only turned up as the police headed out the driveway with his son.

The IPCA accepts the police were trying to ensure Mr X’s immediate safety, because they had to wait for an Invercargillbased mental health team to arrive almost seven hours later.

During that time, the police took Mr X to Queenstown’s Lakes District Hospital to check for any injury.

The IPCA notes that, because of his ‘‘aggressive state’’, the police decided to return him to police cells.

However, a doctor believed he was fine to stay there until the mental health team arrived, Mr X’s father said.

‘‘He could have stayed at the hospital with one of the police staying behind, but when the doctor went to see another patient, they whipped him away and took him back to the cells.’’

IPCA chairman Judge Colin Doherty said incidents like these were commonplace ‘‘and demonstrate the real difficulties confronted by police when dealing with those experiencing a mental health crisis’’.

‘‘Police often feel compelled to act unlawfully in order to protect the distressed individual and the wider public, and the authority does not blame them for doing so.’’

Police yesterday accepted the IPCA’s findings.

‘‘I support the actions of the officers involved. We have a duty of care to protect life and safety,’’ Queenstown Lakes Area Commander Inspector Olaf Jensen said.