Met Police face backlash over tweet claiming officers were 'too busy dealing with missing people and mental health issues' to fight crime

Controversial message: Lewisham police have since deleted the tweet
Twitter
Chris Baynes31 August 2017
WEST END FINAL

Get our award-winning daily news email featuring exclusive stories, opinion and expert analysis

I would like to be emailed about offers, event and updates from Evening Standard. Read our privacy notice.

Police in a London borough faced a backlash after an officer tweeted they could not catch criminals because they were too busy searching for missing people and dealing with mental health issues.

The comments were made in a post on Lewisham borough’s Twitter account just before midnight on Wednesday which read: “So busy dealing with the fallout from mental health issues and ‘missing’ people don’t have time to fight crime.”

The tweet was immediately criticised by users of the social media site with one saying : “Someone’s getting fired in the morning.”

Another wrote: “I’m guessing you don’t see that as your role but I would argue it is still important. Recognising you do need more support.”

The tweet had been deleted by 2.30am. At 2.35am the account posted: “Busy night in #Lewisham with #missingpeople and mental health related calls. These calls are important to us and we are doing our upmost.”

The Met faced criticism over its use of Twitter last week when the force was accused of “demonising” Notting Hill Carnival in a tweet linking the event with a seizure of heroin in Catford.

Three years ago the force’s helicopter Twitter account came under fire for arguing back when people asked why helicopters were flying over their homes.

On one occasion residents questioned why the aircraft was flying over homes at 2am. The account replied: “Not sure if searching for a stabbing victim and firearms suspects is unnecessary, but apologies if you were disturbed.”

The controversy in Lewisham came as new figures emerged showing that calls to the Met police relating to mental health issues have soared by a third in the last five years.

There were 115,000 calls to the Met in the 12 months to July in which someone raised concern about a person’s mental health - an average of 13 an hour.

A Met spokesman said: “A tweet posted by @MPSLewisham at 23.56pm on August 30 was erroneous and did not reflect the values and work ethic of Lewisham borough or indeed the MPS.

“This is why it was removed. A new message has since been tweeted by @MPSLewisham.

“Every call matters to us. Dealing with vulnerable missing people and attending calls related to mental health issues is a vital part of everyday policing.”

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in