Police 'not to blame' over suicide death

The High Court has ruled that not all people who attempt suicide are mentally ill
and, therefore, police are not obliged to help them.
The ruling follows action taken by a Victorian woman who sued two police officers
she blamed for the suicide death of her husband.
Six High Court judges unanimously found the law did not oblige a person to rescue
another from harm.
The decision has divided health groups and other stakeholders.
The court on Wednesday reversed the Court of Appeal's decision that the officers
should have intervened after they found Ronald Veenstra, 37, in his car with a
vacuum hose attached to the exhaust.
Mr Veenstra told the officers he would be OK when they found him writing a note at
5.40am on August 22, 1999, on Sunnyside Beach, on Victoria's Mornington Peninsula.
He apparently disconnected the hose but later that same day he committed suicide by
again attaching it and starting the engine.
His wife Tania Kirkland-Veenstra sued the officers and sought damages for
psychiatric damage.
Mr Veenstra was due to be charged over alleged fraudulent business transactions.
The High Court's six judges unanimously found that under the Mental Health Act the
police officers were empowered but not obliged to apprehend Mr Veenstra unless he
appeared to be mentally ill and at risk of trying to take his own life.
Ms Kirkland-Veenstra and her lawyers declined to comment but other lawyers have told
AAP the decision sets a precedent for how police officers handle suicides.
Dr Paul Morgan, the deputy director of mental health charity Sane Australia, said he
thought a reasonable person would have intervened in such a case.
"If someone is trying to kill themselves and it is up to you, you would say `bugger
the law'," he told AAP.
"I would assume under common law you would have a duty of care to someone in danger
of losing their life."
Dr Morgan said police should be better trained to deal with suicides, but the
situation was worse a decade ago when Mr Veenstra died.
The decision was welcomed by Dr Philip Nitschke, the director of voluntary
euthanasia and assisted suicide group Exit International, who said it would have
been unacceptable for police to be punished over the case.
"Suicide is not a crime. It can be a rational, clear decision for a person to take
their life," he told AAP.
In the judge's ruling they said: "The officers offered to contact various people,
including his wife or a doctor, but Mr Veenstra said that he would go home and talk
to his wife".
"The officers considered that Mr Veenstra was rational and cooperative and showed no
sign of mental illness.
"The justices held that the control of the risk of the harm to himself remained with
Mr Veenstra ... It would be wrong to assume that all persons who attempted suicide
were mentally ill."
RMIT University criminal justice associate professor Julian Bondy said the decision
made sense with a recent UK study finding three quarters of suicides involved people
not mentally ill.
"It is easy with hindsight to say they should have got more involved but police deal
with a lot of potential suicides and distressed people," he told AAP.
"It would be impossible to detain all of them, (they) would overwhelm hospital
services and lower the threshold of police involvement."