Mind nominee given criminal justice award!

Posted Friday 11 December 2009

PC Richard Harwin from the Metropolitan Police in the London Borough of Hackney has just been highly commended as part of the Una Padel Award for outstanding work in the field of criminal justice.

Mind nominated PC Harwin for this award in recognition of his active commitment to improving police practice towards people with mental health problems. PC Harwin has been working with Mind on our Another assault campaign to improve access to justice for victims and witnesses.

PC Harwin has introduced mental health awareness training for all police officers in Hackney, which involves people with direct experience of mental distress delivering part of the training. He also works closely with City and Hackney Mind, running a monthly police surgery for people to informally report crime, and ensuring police officers regularly ‘drop in’ to the local Mind to build up trust and confidence in the police.

PC Harwin’s innovative work is improving public confidence, information sharing and reporting rates in Hackney – and most importantly, ensuring people with mental health problems have equal access to justice when they are a victim of or witness to a crime.

Mind is planning to disseminate this and other examples of best practice to police next year, so all police forces can ensure they are providing a good service to people with mental distress.

<  Return to news