The police are an important stakeholder in the provision of mental health care in Germany. On the one hand, police officers regularly come into contact with people with mental illness in crisis situations and are involved in their forced admission to psychiatric care in dangerous situations. This often reveals deficits in the training of police officers in dealing appropriately with people with mental illness.

On the other hand, the question of the respective responsibilities at the interface of police and psychiatry and especially in the area of danger prevention has long been raised. The regulatory function of psychiatry has particularly been intensively discussed repeatedly for some years, combined with demands that this area – insofar as measures are taken against the will of a person – be transferred solely to the police and the judiciary.

Against this background, this symposium will examine and critically discuss the role of the police in the context of psychiatric care from various perspectives: psychiatric, legal and police science.