50425 (2024). Debbie Ngarewa-Packer to the Minister of Police

50425 (2024). Debbie Ngarewa-Packer to the Minister of Police: How many mental health distress calls, if any, has the Police been involved with since 1 November 2023, broken down demographically and monthly?

Hon Mark Mitchell: I am advised that when Police communication centres receive a request for service, an event is entered in the Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) system. CAD events can only have one code type, and Police practice is to code the most serious risk or alleged offence. Mental health distress events are usually coded as 1M or 1X. Mental health distress may be a factor in other CAD events, but these are not included in this response. I refer the Member to the attached table which shows the number of mental health events between 1 November 2023 and 31 July 2024 attended by police. CAD is an operational system designed to enable unit dispatch and event management, and it does not have structured data about people. Events may be later categorised in more detail when they are transferred to the National Intelligence Application (NIA). NIA allows more information to be recorded, such as the precise offence, incident, or task codes, and the details about people.