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Police as Public Health Interventionists

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Book cover Policing Encounters with Vulnerability

Abstract

Practice collaboration between policing and health practitioners is now commonplace, including the growth of mental health intervention teams in policing organisations. In this chapter, we extend the work already developed by scholars aligned with the Law Enforcement and Public Health conference, and consider the practice implications of moving upstream and away from a reliance upon downstream crisis intervention. In this shift, we suggest that the concept of vulnerability may assist policing organisations to reconceptualise some of their work as public health intervention.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Beyond the scope of this chapter, an important example of contradictory public health and public safety intervention is China’s family planning police (Hu et al. 2015; Li 1996)

  2. 2.

    See for example, the 2016 LEPH conference agenda, which is dominated by these two streams of enquiry.

  3. 3.

    The public health advantages of parsimonious policing are no more obvious than in the zero-tolerance policing of minor traffic, vehicle or public offences in the US that have resulted in officer-involved shootings.

  4. 4.

    For a detailed discussion of the aims and outcomes of Crisis Intervention Teams, see Arey et al. (2015); Bartkowiak-Théron et al. (2014); Herrington (2012); Morabito et al. (2012); Normore et al. (2015); Watson et al. (2008).

  5. 5.

    This highlights the issues identified by Bartkowiak-Théron and Asquith (2015) in the practice siloes of current approaches to policing vulnerability.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Policing and Criminal Justice, Western Sydney University, Penrith, NSW, Australia

    Nicole L Asquith

  2. Tasmanian Institute of Law Enforcement Studies, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia

    Isabelle Bartkowiak-Théron

Authors
  1. Nicole L Asquith
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  2. Isabelle Bartkowiak-Théron
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Correspondence to Nicole L Asquith .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Western Sydney University , Penrith, New South Wales, Australia

    Nicole L Asquith

  2. Tasmanian Institute of Law Enforcement Studies, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia

    Isabelle Bartkowiak-Théron

  3. University of Western Sydney , Penrith, New South Wales, Australia

    Karl A Roberts

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Asquith, N.L., Bartkowiak-Théron, I. (2017). Police as Public Health Interventionists. In: Asquith, N., Bartkowiak-Théron, I., Roberts, K. (eds) Policing Encounters with Vulnerability. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51228-0_7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51228-0_7

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