I psykiatrins utkant: Rättsliga förutsättningar och rättssäkerhetsbrister vid polisens tillfälliga omhändertaganden av personer med psykisk ohälsa

Police interactions with persons experiencing mental illness are increasing and constitute an integrated part of police work in Sweden and beyond. Challenging aspects of these encounters have been highlighted by both the Swedish police and international research for many years. This article examines the Swedish regulatory framework on temporary apprehensions by the police of individuals with mental illness under section 47 of The Compulsory Mental Care Act (1990:1128) and analyses the issue of legal certainty that arises due to the fact that police actions in these cases are regulated by legislation that is primarily intended for health care provision. Our study indicates that existing legislation contains both technical and substantive deficiencies that requires legislative reform. Furthermore, it appears that practice may diverge from legislative intent, especially since the preparatory works envisaged that initial assessments of persons in mental health crisis would primarily be conducted by health-care or social-welfare actors rather than the police. In effect, the police are undertaking welfare-actor tasks at the margins of psychiatry. We argue that the role of the police in the early stages of the care-chain needs clearer definition, and that legislative revision is warranted to strengthen legal certainty and safeguard individual rights. Moreover, the article highlights systemic issues of role-conflict, resource-misalignment and knowledge-gaps in the interface between policing and mental health care. Which have hitherto received little attention in the Swedish context.