‘Street-level psychiatrists’?

The title of this chapter comes from Lipsky’s (1980) classic study, Street level bureaucracy. Lipsky’s work is the study of the impact of financial crisis on welfare services in New York. It was also a period when the impact of the first wave of deinstitutionalisation was being felt. This led to an increase in homelessness but also more frequent contact between the police and people experiencing mental health problems. ‘Street-level psychiatrist’ was a term that officers used in interviews with Lipsky to sum up the new role that they felt they were being forced to play. This chapter examines mental health work in the context of broader ‘cop culture’ before outlining new models of policing such as street triage that have been developed.