Global shifts in the policing of mental health

This special edition outlines the changing landscape of policing and mental health and provides readers with an introduction to a multitude of policy and practice innovations from the UK, the Netherlands, Canada, the USA, and Brazil. These examples of innovative and evolving practice address the challenge of fair, effective, and equitable responses to people suffering mental health crises. The special edition takes, as its starting point, a presumption that knowledge of mental ill health within policing, as elsewhere, is limited. This is not to state that there is little discussion about mental health and policing. On the contrary, mental health is subject to much discussion at the policy level but there remains a gap between policy noise and consistent actionable change. The articles that follow thus represent an attempt to enhance and expand the research agenda in this area and to build an evidence- base to inform future decision-making using global and multidisciplinary perspectives from police officers, health workers, policymakers, and academics.