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Is it ever mandatory to call the police or other emergency service for people? For example, say a friend has suicidal thoughts. Could you ever be breaking the law by not calling the police in such a situation?

The Editor
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    Based on some of the answers, it might be helpful to distinguish if you mean calling the police, versus reporting to any form of authority or emergency service. In your example, if there was mandatory reporting for suicidal thoughts, the police would not, and should never be, the first go-to when looking for help in cases of a mental health crisis. – RToyo Jul 25 '22 at 16:16
  • Seems relevant, https://www.shanephelpslaw.com/the-atticus-files/2021/november/are-you-legally-obligated-to-report-a-crime-/. Basically, you should report life-threatening things unless there's zero chance that they charge you as an accessory to a crime. – MonkeyZeus Jul 25 '22 at 18:17
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    @RToyo My question is on whether reporting to a third party in general is ever mandatory, so I updated my question to be broader. Thanks for the suggestion. – The Editor Jul 25 '22 at 18:19
  • Related: https://law.stackexchange.com/q/19636/3569 – gerrit Jul 26 '22 at 07:28

5 Answers5

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A person may be a "mandatory reporter", which means that in some jurisdiction, if you have a certain relationship to a person suspected to be "problematic", in a particular manner, you may be required by law to report those facts to a particular authority. There are a lot of "ifs" in these requirements. For instance, in Washington, RCW 74.34.020 defines a set of "mandated reporters", for abuse of vulnerable adults. The trigger conditions are "abandonment, abuse, financial exploitation, or neglect", and a mandatory reporter reports to the Department of Social and Health Services. I'm not a mandatory reporter, but school personnel and health care workers (inter alios) are. This document summarizes the various legal requirements by state.

In Oregon, a hospital is required to report an attempted suicide, and you report to the Oregon Public Health Division. An exhaustive search of all such laws would be impractical, but based on the laws that I reviewed, there are some general features of mandatory reports. First, the person required to report has to have a special duty of care, for example they are law enforcement, a health care professional, etc. and these laws do not impose a requirement on everybody. Second, the individuals that they are supposed to report about are "vulnerable", however that is defined by law – usually, the implication is that they are not in a mental state that they can take full care of themselves. Third, the report is made to some supervisory social services agency, which is then responsible for taking further action (to prevent the harm). However, health care workers in California are required to report suspected domestic violence to the police. It is unlikely that any jurisdiction in the US requires reporting suicide to the police, since suicide is not a crime in the US, and the police are not a social service agency, they are a law enforcement agency (no law is being broken).

user6726
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    Thank you for your reply! If I remember right, do (public?) attorneys qualify as mandatory reporters? Also, isn't suicide a crime in at least some U.S. states? – The Editor Jul 25 '22 at 13:00
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    What is a public attorney? – George White Jul 25 '22 at 16:03
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    Suicide is not a crime in any state. Attorneys-client communications are privileged (meaning that disclosure is prohibited), but in some states, the privilege does not hold when a client discloses an intent to commit a crime in the future, and the attorney may be required to report a threat. – user6726 Jul 25 '22 at 16:21
  • Another example of a mandatory reporting requirement concerns federal treason and sedition violations. I believe that Texas has a fairly broad set of mandatory reporting requirements outside those common in other states but don't have chapter and verse on that. – ohwilleke Jul 25 '22 at 20:52
  • @TheEditor Not to my knowledge, but I haven't been a mandatory reporter in a while. – Azor Ahai -him- Jul 25 '22 at 21:11
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    @user6726 "Attorneys-client communications are privileged (meaning that disclosure is prohibited)," Not quite. There is no prohibition on the client disclosing privileged communications. It is just that their disclosure cannot be compelled, and the lawyer may not disclose without the client's permission. – David Siegel Jul 25 '22 at 23:08
  • @GeorgeWhite A public attorney, at least in the U.S., would be an attorney who works in government roles, examples being a district attorney/prosecutor or public defender. – The Editor Jul 25 '22 at 23:32
  • @user6726 Suicide is a crime in California. For example, PC187 (Homicide) has no exception for suicide. It makes it a crime to cause the death of a human being. Given that other statutes (such as PC192, voluntary manslaughter) do make it clear that they do not cover suicide, I don't see how you can argue that PC187 somehow implicitly doesn't. – David Schwartz Jul 26 '22 at 00:21
  • @DavidSchwartz "Murder is the unlawful killing of a human being" - if suicide is not unlawful, PC187 does not hold. – glglgl Jul 26 '22 at 12:48
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    @glglgl Case law says that "unlawful" just means that you don't have an applicable affirmative defense. – David Schwartz Jul 26 '22 at 15:14
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    @DavidSchwartz Doesn't death end criminal proceedings anyways? What kind of affirmative defence can you put forward as a dead person? – AmiralPatate Jul 27 '22 at 07:08
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    @AmiralPatate Yeah. Whether or not suicide is illegal, nobody could ever be prosecuted for the completed offense. – David Schwartz Jul 27 '22 at 19:17
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In the US there are very few situations where any requirement to help or report a situation exists. Some people, for example certain professionals taking care of children, have the status of “mandatory reporters” of child abuse allegation or evidence.

You might remember in the final episodes of Seinfeld the group is arrested for mocking someone in trouble rather than helping. They apparently ran afoul of a local, odd ball duty-to-rescue law. This is an anomaly.

In the Wikipedia page for duty to rescue you will see that in common law countries there is no such duty in general. Exceptions are in cases where you caused the hazard in the first place or for certain special relations between you and the person in trouble.

George White
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    "This is an anomaly": I thought it was "fiction"! – phoog Jul 25 '22 at 08:33
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    On Germany the would have run afoul of a local, odd ball duty-to-rescue was that applies in the whole country, and if you are caught not helping, that's not only legally quite bad for you, but everyone will look at you as a most despicable individual. – gnasher729 Jul 25 '22 at 11:18
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    @gnasher729 Yehbut - everyone knows Seinfeld is set in the US, not Germany, so a duty-to-rescue law is oddball. – Martin Bonner supports Monica Jul 25 '22 at 15:08
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    In the U.S., even the police famously have no duty to rescue. – Daniel McLaury Jul 25 '22 at 16:06
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    @phoog: The whole two-part episode is wildly fictional, as Legal Eagle explains at great length. – Kevin Jul 25 '22 at 19:33
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    @MartinBonnersupportsMonica if it's not German, why is it called "sein" and "Feld"? Checkmate, atheists. – user253751 Jul 26 '22 at 11:43
  • That Seinfeld episode mentions it's a new law based on French law. French Penal Code Art223-6 says you have a duty to intervene to prevent a crime against "corporal integrity" when there's no danger to yourself or third parties, and you have a duty to rescue or trigger rescue when someone is "in peril" when also no danger. Even assuming "corporal integrity" or "peril" applies here, the thief is assumed armed so there's a danger to intervene. They'd have been required to call the cops at most, but it went fast, the cop appeared immediately, they might argue they just didn't have time to react. – AmiralPatate Jul 27 '22 at 09:04
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Requirements to report crimes are relatively rare. One common example involves money laundering.

For example, in , Section 330 of the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 requires, under specific circumstances, a person in the "regulated sector" to report suspicions of money laundering to a nominated officer or a person authorised by the National Crime Agency. In the case of the former the nominated officer in turn is required to report to a person authorised by the NCA, pursuant to Section 331. Schedule 9 defines what is meant by the regulated sector.

JBentley
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While "breaking the law" typically suggests something like a criminal offense, there are other considerations not mentioned above where failing to call for help could give rise to legal consequences.

Anytime someone else could have legal liability to you for compensatory damages on almost any theory, you have an obligation to mitigate damages, and so, if you could potentially mitigate the harm to yourself and you fail to do so, you could be denied recovery for avoidable damages.

Also, while only a few states have a "duty to rescue", in situations where you put someone in harms way through your actions, or deny them an ability to take care of themselves (e.g. by putting them in custody) you have a duty to make things right by any means possible. Similarly, if someone is entrusted to your care (e.g. you are a babysitter) you may have an affirmative duty to seek help.

ohwilleke
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In this case, I wouldn't call the police, but a help organization instead. Your friend needs to talk to a psychologist, not the police. In most countries, there are organizations that offer support by phone for such situations. The Wikipedia article Crisis Hotline may be of some help. It even contains phone numbers for the US.

As far as I know, most countries require you to help or call for help if you see an emergency (or suspect that some bad thing is about to happen). They don't require you to call the police.

PMF
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  • Thanks for your reply! So as long as you either help or call someone else for help, you don't legally have to call the police, then? – The Editor Jul 24 '22 at 20:43
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    This answer has a serious error as far as the U.S. is concerned. Almost no jurisdiction in the U.S. has a broad, general, legal requirement to help or report. – George White Jul 24 '22 at 21:28
  • @GeorgeWhite You're probably right there, it depends on the circumstances and the kind of incident you witness. But if you need to call for help (I believe failure to call for help in a car accident is a crime in the US, too) it's not necessarily the police you need to primarily call. – PMF Jul 25 '22 at 06:20
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    @TheEditor Yes. What does the victim need most in a car accident? A medic or somebody to apportion blame? The later is necessary in the end, but not the most urgent thing. – PMF Jul 25 '22 at 06:25
  • @PMF of course in almost every case these days, it's the same phone number for both the ambulance and the police. You have to go out of your way to call one without calling the other (and even if you do, the one you did call will probably call the one you didn't). – phoog Jul 25 '22 at 08:36
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    @GeorgeWhite, how is it in error? It clearly says "most countries", without indicating any particular one would be included. The fact that the US isn't like most countries doesn't contradict that statement. – ilkkachu Jul 25 '22 at 09:01
  • @phoog that may be true for the US 911, but in the UK the first thing the 999 operator asks is which service you require (police, ambulance, fire, or coastguard). You're then connected to the right people. Police coordinate if you know a multi-agency response is needed – Chris H Jul 25 '22 at 11:35
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    @ChrisH the question is tagged [tag:united-states]. – phoog Jul 25 '22 at 11:43
  • @phoog - it is, but there's been lots of international discussion. More to the point, perhaps I should have phrased my comment as a question: "Is that the case in the US, because it isn't here?" – Chris H Jul 25 '22 at 11:45
  • @ChrisH in the US in my somewhat limited experience the dispatcher asks for a description of the emergency and decides whom to send based on the description. I believe the dispatcher is thought to be better at deciding who is needed to handle a given emergency than the person making the call. – phoog Jul 25 '22 at 11:51
  • @phoog OK, that makes sense. We effectively have another tier before a more specific dispatcher. So when I witnessed a motorway (freeway) crash it was the police I called, who then called in everyone else, but when I crashed my bike and broke a few bones, I got straight through to the ambulance service – Chris H Jul 25 '22 at 12:20
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    @PMF In the US, you are not generally required to report witnessing a car accident, not even if someone is hurt. Most (maybe all?) states have a requirement to report serious accidents if you were driving a vehicle that was involved, but nothing for witnesses--not even for passengers. (Details vary as to what is considered "serious" and how quickly you must report it.) (Of course most people will call for help if anyone is injured, regardless of if they are involved or not, but it's not a legal requirement.) – user3067860 Jul 25 '22 at 14:38
  • @phoog Note that this site specifically encourages deviating from jurisdiction tags: "Even if you supply a jurisdiction tag, we expect and encourage answers dealing with other jurisdictions" – JBentley Jul 26 '22 at 15:49
  • @ilkkachu Claiming "most countries" is quite problematic for something as specific as this. It's unlikely that anyone other than a specialist international lawyer would be able to make such an assertion, and even such a lawyer would be unlikely to have a detailed knowledge of more than a few jurisdictions. Indeed, even this answer merely states "as far as I know", which isn't a statement backed up by legal authority. It appears more of an assumption based on a layperson's feeling of what is moral rather than an accurate statement of the law. Indeed, most of the answer is non-legal advice. – JBentley Jul 26 '22 at 15:53
  • @JBentley I'm aware of that. Nothing about this answer suggests that it is relevant to another jurisdiction. – phoog Jul 26 '22 at 17:40
  • @phoog On the contrary, both paragraphs of the answer contain the phrase "most countries", so all jurisdictions are relevant here. – JBentley Jul 27 '22 at 09:57
  • I forgot to explain my downvote: the first paragraph does not contain any legal content. The second seems to be a (quite possibly incorrect) opinion without legal sources. My suggestion for improvement is to delete the first paragraph and provide a citation for the second. – JBentley Jul 27 '22 at 09:59
  • @JBentley Yes, this is not a legal issue mainly, therefore I answered with a non-legal suggestion. The other answers and the comments on the question go in the same direction. As for the second paragraph, I really thought that rule was so common that it didn't need a source. As an example https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/eli/cc/54/757_781_799/en#art_128 the Swiss criminal code Art 128 is quite clear: Someone who does not help a person in immediate, life-threatening danger, risks a jail sentence. Germany's law is very similar: https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/stgb/__323c.html – PMF Jul 27 '22 at 18:23
  • @user3067860 So in the US, if someone gets hurt due to a random event (maybe because the road was slippery) everybody can just walk by and think that it's their problem without risking any consequences? – PMF Jul 27 '22 at 18:30
  • @PMF Yes. Turns out Wikipedia has a map, but not sure how accurate it is, e.g. California is in blue but that's opposite to what's said elsewhere on the page -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_Samaritan_law – user3067860 Jul 27 '22 at 20:04
  • "This is not a legal issue mainly" - I don't know how you reached that conclusion. The question only asks about legal issues: "Is it ever mandatory?" and "could you ever be breaking the law?". In any case a non-legal issue should get a close vote rather than a non-legal answer. On the second point, 2 examples doesn't prove the "most countries" claim. Something like the Wikipedia link above is more helpful, although I'd still argue it approaches "many countries" rather than "most". – JBentley Jul 27 '22 at 20:30