Health literacy training for police recruits

This article is related directly to the Seventh International Conference on Law Enforcement & Public Health (LEPH) held in Ottawa, Canada in July 2025.

Abstract

Police officers are uniquely positioned in that they are often the first on scene to respond following health-related calls for help. As a result, they often encounter victims and vulnerable community members at risk for adverse outcomes and low health literacy. In response, a large urban police department in the Southwestern United States, the Phoenix Police Department, implemented a 60-minute didactic Health Literacy Training for Public Safety Professionals presentation to educate recruits in the police academy about health literacy universal precautions and how to apply them specifically to police practice. To evaluate the training’s impact, participating recruits completed pre- and post-training surveys assessing health literacy knowledge, self-efficacy, and planned use of health literacy universal precautions in victim encounters. Survey responses were then analysed using paired sample t-tests, and crosstabs analysis was performed to assess differences by participants’ age, gender, and education level. In total, six trainings were delivered to 139 police recruits, and there were significant improvements in their knowledge of health literacy, self-efficacy, and intended frequency of use of communication techniques (p < 0.001). There was no significant association between recruits’ age, gender, and education level on post-training survey responses. Following the health literacy training, the improved knowledge, self-efficacy, and planned behaviour across age, gender, and education history supports the benefit of health literacy training for all police
recruits. Moreover, findings support the notion that evidence-based and standardized health literacy trainings should be widely incorporated into the education of public safety professionals.