Re-Imagining Policing for the Public Health

This year, the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and far too many others has brought into painful relief the endemic police violence and brutality against Black and Brown people in the United States. As the nation tries to chart a course forward, there have been many calls to rethink, reimagine, and defund policing.

In August, the American Public Health Association brought experts in policing and public health together to discuss these issues as part of a webinar titled Reborn not Reformed: Re-Imagining Policing for the Public Health. Co-sponsored by the Initiative, it was the third webinar in APHA’s popular Advancing Racial Equity webinar series.

Reborn Not Reformed discussed racial bias in policing, the acute and chronic health impacts of over-policing on Black and Latinx communities, and what “re-imagining policing” means for public safety, public health, and society overall.

On this episode of the American Health Podcast, we’ll be sharing one of the webinar presentations. It was given by Dr. Rashawn Ray, the David M. Rubenstein Fellow at the Brookings Institution and Professor of Sociology at the University of Maryland, College Park. Dr. Ray’s presentation will be preceded by introductory remarks from Dr. Daniel Webster, one of the nation’s leading experts on the prevention of gun violence and a Bloomberg Professor of American Health.

Resources:

Watch the webinar recording, and view the webinar slides and transcript APHA’s new discussion guide for their Advancing Racial Equity webinar series