Police and public health professionals are tackling some of the same challenging issues: violence; individuals with mental illness; persons experiencing homelessness; and people with substance use disorders; to name a few.

Issues that we have seen significant increases in since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The growing need to integrate public safety and public health approaches to respond to complex social problems is evident. Noting this trend, the IACP has recently explored the nexus between policing and public health to help identify ways to elevate the innovative policing and public health collaborative responses happening within the policing profession around the globe.

In recent decades, police have responded to an ever-expanding number of social problems. Officers perform life-saving duties on a daily basis, from administering naloxone to people who have overdosed from opioids to preventing domestic violence homicides to removing firearms from individuals who pose a risk to themselves or others. In many communities, the public health and public safety partnerships were a natural response to these challenges, while in others, they have historically worked in silos and are only now starting to work toward coordinated efforts that can reduce the strain on emergency resources and more effectively address the underlying problems that drive crime and violence.

The IACP sees a public health–informed policing (PHIP) vision that applies public health–thinking, approaches, and tools within policing to address complicated issues at the nexus of public safety and public health within communities. PHIP in practice has six characteristics; it’s collaborative, cross-disciplinary, research driven, solutions oriented, culturally appropriate, and rooted in the community.

The potential impact of PHIP is considerable, both in terms of the scope of issues and the ability to have a demonstrable impact that enhances the safety and well-being of officers, individuals who come into contact with the police, and the wider community as a whole.

Introspective and thoughtful leadership can cultivate strong relationships with system- and community-based partners, as well as policy makers, which is central to PHIP. Such leadership employs adaptive decision-making and actions that are centered on values and beliefs.

PHIP, broadly, is a global initiative. At the same time, the individual strategies of public health and police officials need to be adapted based on the needs, cultures, and resources of the countries, regions, communities, and neighborhoods in which they are implemented. While infrastructure, funding, and support from high-level policy makers is important, some of the most effective public health–informed initiatives have developed through grassroots efforts.

As our knowledge of the neuroscience of addiction and substance use disorder has developed, the response to this complex problem has shifted; we know we cannot arrest our way out of drug epidemics. PHIP addresses both the supply and demand of addictive and lethal substances through diversion from the justice system to evidence-based treatment and policies that incorporate harm reduction strategies and recognize that relapse is part of substance use disorder. Nor can we arrest our way out of quality-of-life issues—individuals experiencing homelessness and associated crimes, loitering, petty theft, etc.—which are often symptoms of much larger problems that arise from gaps in social support systems rather than always resulting from individual choices to break laws.

The health and wellness of both officers and communities is central to public health–informed policing.

The health and wellness of both officers and communities is central to PHIP. This includes both proactively addressing the vicarious trauma that officers experience when they are repeatedly exposed to violence and other challenging situations and addressing the underlying trauma within communities that stem from high-profile and historical events that have undermined their trust in police and government.

Through PHIP, gun violence strategies that encompass both prevention and response components can be developed and implemented. Such strategies address the conditions that both leads to, and results from, gun violence and calls upon the strength of police agencies, government leaders, service providers, and community members to coordinate efforts rather than act independently. Central to this work is enhancing data collection and analysis as it equips police, government agencies, service organizations, and community members with comprehensive and nuanced understandings of the scope and context of the problem, without which it would be difficult to effectively create targeted interventions for those who are most at risk of gun violence victimization and perpetration. And it includes the community members most impacted by gun violence—those who live and work in high violence neighborhoods. To see this in action, one would only have to look at the remarkable transformation of Oakland, California, where city- and community-wide efforts have dramatically reduced gun violence since 2012. To read more, visit www.oaklandca.gov/topics/oaklands-ceasefire-strategy.

The topics I note here only scratch the surface of the true potential of PHIP. There are a multitude of issues beyond these topics that are woven into the health and safety of individuals and communities across the globe. These issues are complicated and have implications that drive rates of illness, injury, and death, often with those who are most vulnerable among us bearing the brunt of the harm. There are a number of ways that we as police leaders can incorporate public health-informed policing in our work:

Reach out to public health leaders in our communities. Establish partnerships that will help us better understand each others’ missions and goals to keep our communities safe. If you don’t have a professional relationship with the public health director for your community, hopefully this message will spur you to reach out to that person!

Make information sharing with public health organizations a priority, at least as much so as information sharing with other police agencies, both at the local level through relationship-building and collaboration, and at the national level by participating in the National Violent Death Reporting System in the United States, or a similar data collection initiative to support evidence-based intervention strategies where you live and work.

Partner with your local public health agencies, behavioral health, community-
based organizations, hospitals, treatment providers, universities, and other stakeholders to start or join initiatives or host events that focus on how your agency is working to improve the health and safety of your community.

Consider including public health partners on your multidisciplinary teams, the ones that address issues of community violence, such as gun, gang, or youth violence initiatives, human trafficking task forces and sexual assault response teams.

Actively engage in discussions with community members and public health officials on how your agency can meet the public health and safety needs of those you serve and protect.

Check out IACP’s resources on public health-informed policing strategies at www.theIACP.org/publichealth.

Alone, public health and police agencies are ill-equipped to adequately respond to these problems, but the collaboration between public health and police agencies can act as a force multiplier that saves lives, mitigates trauma and harm, and creates a healthier and better tomorrow.d