Sir Mark Rowley raises concerns of ‘unsustainable’ demands from health and social care ahead of co-ordinated walkouts by unions
Public sector strikes will distract the police from fighting crime, Britain’s most senior police officer has warned.
Sir Mark Rowley, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, said that officers were being dragged into doing more health and social care work by minding mentally ill and vulnerable patients in A&E departments rather than spending their time catching criminals.
In a wide-ranging article and interview with The Telegraph, he said that he planned to withdraw police from some of these tasks because the time spent on them had become “unsustainable”.
Sir Mark warned it would only be “exacerbated” when other public services went on strike, noting that it was “something that the police as Crown servants cannot do”.