Michael Brown is an experienced, senior and intelligent and sensitive police officer.
And yes, he’s for real .
Having been frustrated at is own experiences  encountering people in the kind difficulties – of the kind that get called “mental illness” – and having had only two hours training Michael decided there was room for an internet source that could share information, fill in some of the holes and  ask a few questions.
.
As he says…

• police officers are increasingly often first line responders in situations involving someone having a mental health crisis
• if the doctors can’t agree amongst themselves on what is mental illness how is a cop with two hours training supposed to know?

MentalHealthCop is Michael Brown’s private blog and is the best source out there examining  issues of where mental health and policing come together. Michael Brown is a credit to police everywhere for his thoughtfulness, willingness to admit what he doesn’t know and to ask some difficult questions not just of police services but of medical institutions and of our society.

MentalHealthCop.wordpress.com  is currently marked as private – effectively suspended – it seems pending investigation.
Likewise  the Twitter account @MentalHealthCop.

Assistant Chief Constable Garry Forsyth of West Midlands’ Police -Brown’s employer- has said:

“I am a fan of what he has done” he said, “but some things require proportionate investigation.”

Asked how long the investigation would take, he said

“I have directed that it is prompt and proportionate, don’t know the answer but would hope it’s a matter of days rather than weeks.”

This UK Guardian article talks about why UK policing needs MentalHealthCop.
Certainly Toronto policing needs MentalHealthCop, and likely, a few other places need it too. http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/feb/18/illness-uk-needs-mental-health-cop

Lets just say the whole world needs MentalHealthCop.

and let’s hope Asst Chief Constable Garry Forsyth is as good as his word.

MentalHealthCop http://mentalhealthcop.wordpress.com/

Related..

• acclaimed mental health blogger has Twitter account  suspended by Police for  “misuse” http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/michael-brown-mentalhealthcop-acclaimed-police-3147951#ixzz2thCD0Nvf
• Why the police silenced one of the best officers in Britain http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/nick-cohen/2014/02/why-the-police-silenced-one-of-the-best-officers-in-britain/