By Ashish Joshi, Sky News Correspondent
A senior police officer has told Sky News his officers spend 20% of their time dealing with mental health issues even though they are not trained or equipped to do so.
Assistant Chief Constable Paul Netherton from Devon and Cornwall Police said tensions were rising between police forces and mental health care providers, possibly as a result of shrinking budgets.
"Certainly over the last few years that tension has been growing. We are all in austerity. We understand that," he said.
"The problem is that the Government funded the health service to provide the establishments for these people to go to. The challenge for the health service is that they've got to provide the staff to look after the patients and they are simply having to make some very tough choices.
"The view of the police service is we understand that but it's never right that these patients are coming into police premises and we're having to look after them.
"We haven't got the skills, we haven't got the facilities. And to be frankly honest a custody block is never somewhere you should put someone who is suicidal."
ACC Netherton took to social media last year after his officers were forced to arrest and detain a mentally-ill schoolgirl.
The 16-year-old, with a history of serious self-harm, was taken into police custody and had to stay in a police cell for three days because a secure hospital bed could not be found anywhere in the country.
The police officer's tweets described the situation as "unacceptable" and added "this can't be right".
The scandal forced high level government intervention and focused attention on the use or misuse of police detentions under section 136 of the Mental Health Act.
"When I was a young police officer it was all about catching car thieves and criminals. Now my officers are spending about 20% of their time dealing with the after effects of mental health issues or dealing with people suffering from mental health episodes."
The mother of the schoolgirl told Sky News she had nothing but respect for ACC Netherton and said his tweets had helped her daughter's case but she hoped the vulnerable teenager has not been damaged by the detention.
"She would have been very scared. She would have had to obviously hear whatever was going on in the other cells, the drunks coming in on a Friday night. I know she was asleep a lot of the time because of the medication so I'm hoping she wasn't damaged too much by it."
The misery for the sick girl and her family is continuing. She is currently being held at a hospital in Norwich but her family lives on the other side of the country in Devon. The long journey takes time, money and effort - it explains why the girl's mother has only been able to see her daughter twice since Christmas.
The mother said: "She needs us and when we are with her it's amazing because all the staff tell us how well my daughter is doing and why she needs to be near her family, but it's crazy because she's so far away and I'm having to fight for my child to get what she needs to get better."
At least one police force in the country is achieving results with reducing the number of people it detains under the Mental Health Act.
West Midlands Police began trialling a triage service last year. An unmarked ambulance with a police officer, a psychiatric nurse and a paramedic are dispatched to emergencies. The hope is people suffering from mental health issues can be identified and referred for treatment.
Chief Inspector Sean Russell, who leads the initiative, told Sky News the force is significantly reducing the number of police detentions.
"We've seen a 51% reduction in the number of people detained. That's over 300 people in Birmingham and Solihull in the last 12 months. So that's really significant. We've also stopped nearly 700 people being admitted to A&E because of the way our process works with the paramedic now."
But the success of the West Midlands project is not being replicated everywhere, meaning police forces, against their will, are still having to criminalise society's most vulnerable.
In a statement Home Secretary Theresa May said: "I have always been clear that people experiencing a mental health crisis should receive care and support rather than being held in a police cell.
"The police are not medics. They are not mental health nurses. They are not social workers. How the police and other agencies respond to vulnerable people goes right to the heart of the British model of policing by consent.
"Our reforms in this area are bearing fruit and reflect the important steps this Government has taken to vastly improve the police's response to people experiencing mental health problems."
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