Michael Brown

I am a serving police officer and a visiting lecturer: author of the 'MentalHealthCop' blog since 2011. I am currently seconded from West Midlands Police to the UK College of Policing as their mental health coordinator. My interest in policing, mental health and criminal justice stems from my operational police experience as I have been required to police a range of serious incidents involving vulnerable people in crisis from the earliest points of my career. I have commanded sieges, firearms incidents, multiple homicides and high risk missing persons enquiries and they have all convinced me there is work to be done on these agenda to improve outcomes for those in distress. My work has been recognised both nationally and internationally: I have been formally commended by my Chief Constable and by my peers, the police inspectors of England and Wales; I have been recognised by the UK's leading mental health charity, Mind for my work on social media and have worked in South Africa, Namibia and Northern Ireland. In 2015 I was awarded the President's Medal by the Royal College of Psychiatrists for a significant contribution to the lives of people with mental illness and in 2016 I was appointed an OBE in the 90th Birthday Honours list.