CARIMAC Times 2016: The JREAM Edition Journalists Reviving Awareness of what Matters | Page 89

Photo by Donnette Zacca

Rose added that in the case of Bennett’s son,
the police were mandated by law to remove
and transport him to a psychiatric facility.

facility or arranging for him to be conveyed to
such facility, make a report thereof in writing
to the Review Board.”

According to The Mental Health Act (1999),
section 15 (1): “Where a constable finds any
person in a public place or wandering at large,
in such manner or under such circumstances
as to indicate that he is mentally disordered,
the constable may without warrant take such
person in charge and forthwith accompany
him to a psychiatric facility for treatment
or forthwith arrange for him to be conveyed
with all reasonable care and dispatch to that
facility; and the constable shall, within 30 days
of accompanying such person to the psychiatric

In February 2012, then Police Commissioner
Owen Ellington said that the police should not
neglect their duty to the public in dealing with
mentally ill individuals.
“On no account must a member of the public
be told in [the] future that the police cannot
take action against a mentally disordered
person, unless the mentally disordered person
committed an offence,” Ellington wrote in his
weekly Force Orders.

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