The first occurred in New South Wales. A 95 year old woman was wandering around her care home with a steak knife in the early hours of the morning. She suffered from dementia and I'm in no way underestimating the risk that an armed dementia patient can pose to people but I'm surprised that a nursing home that "specializes in residents with higher care needs including dementia" doesn't ensure its staff the training to manage these situations (and doesn't have systems in place to prevent them from occurring in the first place). But they didn't, so they called the police and two officers turned up.
Rather than trying to de-escalate the situation - or even do the old 'look over here' trick to allow someone to grab the knife off her - they taser her. She fell (unsurprisingly). She hit her head (unsurprisingly). And then after a few days in hospital, she passed away.
Investigations are taking place and the officer who tasered her has been suspended and charged with assault occasioning actual bodily harm, common assault and recklessly causing grievous bodily harm. I'm not sure if those charges have been updated now she's died.
I don't think that the police are the right people to call in this situation (though I also recognise there's not really any other option) but they were and they handled the situation appallingly.
Tragic, but a one off.
Or so I thought.
Then I saw this story today. It's the good ol' Met again. They were called out to deal with a "disturbance between a woman and her carer". The woman was 90. Most articles are virtually identical, suggesting they're all repeating the same press release or agency reporting. The Sun (bastion of investigative reporting, I know, so take with a pinch of salt but it does sound lke they've actually spoken to neighbours unlike the rest of the press) says that he had dementia.
Fortunately the taser wasn't discharged in this situation but it really concerns me how easily it could have been. Tasers are risky, even on seemingly healthy people. There's no way they should be even considered as an option when dealing with frail elderly people.The panic-stricken elderly woman is said to have started ranting at police, spat at one officer and also threw cups of coffee before “extreme measures” were taken to bring her under control.
She was handcuffed behind her back and then the tightly-meshed sack-like spit hood was thrown over the pensioner’s head.
One officer then withdrew a Taser and flicked on the electric stun gun’s switch to aim a red dot on the petrified mother-of-three, but did not discharge the weapon.
The elderly woman – described as small and thin - was carried away afterwards by police while tied down on a stretcher and taken to a local hospital. She was not arrested.
It's why I actually agree with Mark Rowley's decision to stop Met police from attending mental health incidents. Police simply aren't trained to deal with them (given what I've read in the Casey review and elsewhere I'd argue they aren't trained to deal with crime either) and their presence is putting people at risk of serious harm.
One woman is dead and another injured and likely traumatised because police have been turned into mental health first responders without being given the appropriate training. We need alternatives.