Psychiatric Referrals from the Police

this question. Our preliminary work suggested that the procedural vari ations apparent in the operation of s136 were associated with the place of safety used for assessment. In the course of these preliminary enquiries we established that the two places most commonly used for assessment were a psychi atric hospital (or unit )and a police station, the former being the preferred place in London and the latter in other parts of the country. However, the wide definition in the Act as to what constitutes a place of safety (sl35 MIIA 1983 and 1959) permits many other places to be used and we dis covered some innovations on the two basic models within the London area; these included the use of a casualty unit and a day hospital as places of safety. We set out to examine whether persons referred by the police to dînà ̈rent places of safety receiveddifferent 'disposals' (the word is used to refer