Liability for Failure by Police to Detain Potentially Suicidal and Dangerous Persons

Abstract

The author scrutinises the ramifications of the important decision by the majority of the Victorian Court of Appeal in Kirkland-Veenstra v Stuart [2008] VSCA 32 against the backdrop of the New South Wales Court of Appeal decision in Hunter Area Health Service v Presland [2005] NSWCA 33. He argues that in principle the imposition of civil liability upon police officers who fail to take a potentially suicidal or dangerous person pursuant to their statutory powers for examination or assessment is an appropriate accountability mechanism likely to improve the quality of policing in the public interest.