Journal of Community Safety and Well-Being

The pandemic, protests, and social innovation: How can we maintain our progress?

2021-10-06T11:16:04-07:00

When crises collide—Policing a pandemic during social unrest

2021-10-06T11:16:55-07:00

In 2020, the United States was shaken by concurrent crises: the COVID-19 pandemic and protests for racial equality. Both crises present significant challenges for law enforcement. On the one hand, the protests for racial equality drew the public’s attention to the criminal justice system’s disparate treatment of Blacks and other people of colour. On the other hand, the pandemic required the expansion of police duties to enforce public health mandates. To ensure compliance, law enforcement may arrest, detain, and even use force to prevent the transmission of communicable diseases that may have an irreversible impact on human health, such as COVID-19. Policing, however, is at a critical point in America. The government is expanding police powers for the sake of public health; all the while, public indignation about police (ab)uses of power has fuelled calls for its defunding. It is therefore important to explore Americans’ views of policing pandemics during periods of social unrest, focusing on the recognition that socio-economic and racial inequities shape perceptions. The data from this project derives from surveys with Americans on the specific topics of race, policing, racial protests, and COVID-19. The study finds that Americans perceive the police as legitimate overall; however, there are divergences based on race, gender, and marital status. These differences may contribute meaningful insights to the current discourse on police legitimacy in America.

Policing during a global health pandemic: Exploring the stress and well-being of police and their families

2021-10-06T11:17:10-07:00

Law enforcement personnel attend critical incidents that are typically short-lived and geographically confined. However, the recent global health pandemic potentially impacts on every officer, every shift, throughout the world. This research is one of the first survey studies of stress and mental health impacts of COVID-19 on United States police and their families. The study found that the pandemic has created additional stress for police and their families, elevating stress levels in an already highly stressed population. For police officers, sources of stress were predominately associated with the fear of infecting their families and the enforcement of restrictions. The stress created by the pandemic exceeds that of other commonly experienced critical incidents in policing. The current findings indicate that police and their families expect to experience longer-term, harmful mental health impacts. This research provides important insights for police agencies, as well as those who work to support and improve the well-being of police. The pandemic is impacting now on the current stress levels of police and is likely to create a legacy that must be managed into the future.

Proactive Alliance: Combining policing and counselling psychology

2021-10-06T11:17:28-07:00

The philosophy of community-oriented policing (COP) has been widely adopted by police departments around the world and has important benefits, such as improving community members’ satisfaction with police and their perceptions of police legitimacy. However, implementing COP is challenging. Police departments report difficulties obtaining the support of officers on the ground and knowing how best to engage communities—which often contain multiple, overlapping, and sometimes competing groups within the same geographic area—in effective problem-solving and crime prevention.

This article describes Proactive Alliance, an innovative training program that draws from criminological theory and
evidence-based principles in counselling psychology to teach police officers specific, immediately applicable techniques to establish rapport and long-term working relationships with community stakeholders. The training addresses two key challenges of COP: building meaningful collaboration across diverse communities and empowering frontline officers to become change agents in pursuit of the “co-production” of public safety. It builds on the original theory of broken windows policing, which emphasized the importance of harnessing police officers’ personalities to facilitate successful community engagement and crime prevention, and provides practical tools based on those used by mental health professionals to enable officers to engage in active listening, to connect, and to problem-solve with the community while protecting their own well-being. We conclude by describing the potential of Proactive Alliance to strengthen COP and evidence-based policing more broadly.

Addressing Indigenous health determinants exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic

2021-10-06T11:17:49-07:00

Alberta not criminally responsible project: Rates of persons found NCRMD and absolute discharges in Alberta following the Not Criminally Responsible Reform Act

2021-10-06T11:18:05-07:00

In 2014, then-Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper passed the Not Criminally Responsible Reform Act into law, which gave Canadian courts and Review Boards new powers to protect the public from particularly dangerous mentally ill offenders. The most controversial change to the law included the designation of the High-Risk Accused. Once designated by the courts as a High-Risk Accused, that individual is barred from leaving a forensic hospital except for urgent medical reasons. In this article, the authors assess the impact of the Not Criminally Responsible Reform Act on the forensic mental health system in Alberta, Canada. The findings indicate that the legislation did not lead to any meaningful changes in the Alberta forensic mental health system in terms of absolute discharges and incoming persons found not criminally responsible.

Trauma survivors and the media: A qualitative analysis

2021-10-06T11:18:31-07:00

While much has been written about how the media covers traumatic events, little is known about the impact of the media on trauma survivors. This, despite the fact that crime coverage has been a staple of daily news cycles for several decades. Likewise, little has been written about the training and methods of the journalists who cover these events, or the impact of this coverage on the journalists. Based on 71 qualitative surveys and interviews with homicide and traffic fatality survivors, and 22 qualitative surveys of journalists, this article serves to describe five main themes regarding survivor experiences: 1) Prior experience with the media; 2) First encounters with the media; 3) Negative impacts of the media; 4) Positive impacts of the media; and 5) Advice for various stakeholders. Additionally, this article will describe three main themes highlighted by the journalists: 1) Trauma-informed training and guidelines; 2) Comfort in contacting survivors; and 3) Personal impact of reporting on trauma. These findings illustrate a clear gap in services available to survivors, in particular in the immediate aftermath of traumatic events when media attention is often at its highest, as well as a lack of support for journalists covering these events.

Good Samaritan Drug Overdose Act awareness among people who use drugs in British Columbia, Canada

2021-10-06T11:18:46-07:00

Introduction: To address the increase in opioid-related overdoses and deaths in Canada the Good Samaritan Drug Overdose Act (GSDOA) was enacted in May 2017. The GSDOA aims to reduce concerns of police attending overdose events and encourage bystanders to call emergency services. This study explores GSDOA awareness and understanding and the factors associated with GSDOA awareness among people who use drugs (PWUD).

Methods: A cross-sectional drug and harm reduction service use survey containing GSDOA-specific questions was
conducted from October to December 2019 at 22 harm reduction supply distribution sites across British Columbia.
Descriptive analysis and multivariable logistic regression were conducted to assess correlates of GSDOA awareness.

Results: Overall, 54.2% (n = 315) of the eligible study sample (n = 581) reported being aware of the GSDOA. Of respondents reporting awareness, 45.2% and 61.3%, respectively, had a full understanding of when and to whom the GSDOA provides legal protection. In the multivariable model, GSDOA awareness was significantly associated with respondents identifying as cis-men (adjusted odds ratio (AOR) = 2.03 [95% CI: 1.30–3.19]); and those who obtained harm reduction supplies frequently (at least a few times/week) compared with those who did not obtain supplies or obtained them less frequently (AOR = 1.78 [95% CI: 1.14–2.76]).

Conclusion: More than 2 years after its introduction, approximately half of harm reduction site clients reported being aware of the GSDOA, and, of these, less than two-thirds had a complete understanding of who is legally protected by the GSDOA. Future GSDOA knowledge dissemination should target PWUD who are less engaged with harm reduction services to improve GSDOA awareness and understanding.

Addressing opioid misuse: Hero Help as a recovery and behavioural health response

2021-10-06T11:18:58-07:00

Increases in opioid-related overdoses have required law enforcement and public health officials to collectively develop new approaches that treat substance use disorders and save lives. This essay describes the Hero Help recovery and behavioural health assistance program, a Delaware-based initiative providing drug treatment to qualifying adults who contact the police and ask for treatment, or to individuals in lieu of an arrest or upon recommendation by a police officer. Led by the New Castle County Division of Police, this collaborative project has brought together stakeholders from public health and criminal justice to coordinate treatment for people suffering from a substance use disorder and/or mental health problems. This essay describes the goals, evolution, and key activities of the program. It further highlights lessons learned, including improving credibility through concerted community outreach, finding ways to overcome the stigma associated with participating in a law enforcement–based program, gaining officer buy-in, and using data to inform treatment responses. Effectively, this essay seeks to disseminate emerging lessons in creating programming responsive to substance use disorder and mental illness among police departments and their community partners.

Why Indigenous Canadians on reserves are reluctant to complain about the police

2021-10-06T11:19:09-07:00

Recent widespread protests and intensive media coverage of actual and alleged acts of police misconduct against members of vulnerable populations (e.g., Indigenous and racialized persons, mentally ill and/or addicted persons) overrepresented in the criminal justice system have renewed interest internationally in the factors influencing civilian complaints against police. In Canada, a major concern exists regarding how Indigenous persons who feel improperly treated by the police perceive and confront barriers to making formal complaints about such treatment. This study focuses on the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), the police agency providing services to the majority of rural and northern reserve communities. Our survey and interviews with influential “community informants” (in this instance community court workers) with intimate knowledge of such local communities, shared culture and language, and vicarious appreciation of the experiences of community members support the view that Indigenous persons do encounter significant barriers to launching formal complaints and are consistent with other research literature. We discuss our findings, raise policy considerations for decision makers such as police leaders and police complaints bodies, and outline implications for future research.

Universal precautions: A methodology for trauma-informed justice

2021-10-06T11:19:20-07:00

The research clearly indicates that the vast majority of individuals involved in the justice system who display offending behaviour have experienced trauma, victimization, or Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs). Knowing this to be empirically factual raises the question, why is this not highlighted in the training of police officers, correctional officers, parole and probation officers, crown prosecutors, defence lawyers, and judges alike? An understanding of the Justice Client and their complex trauma could have important consequences on how all justice actors interact with people who experience the justice system. Knowing that these individuals were often victims long before they were offending could bring a more compassionate lens to the justice system. Having traumatic experiences is not the cause of offending, but it is often present in the offending population. The prevalence of trauma among the offending population, who themselves have often traumatized their victims, suggests a much-needed change in how police are trained to interact with Justice Clients. This paper applies the concept of Universal Precautions from first aid training in the development of practical policy to create a justice system based in compassion.