Systemic racism in police contact is an important driver of health inequities among the U.S. urban population. Hyper-policing and police violence in marginalized communities have risen to the top of the national policy agenda, particularly since protests in 2020. How did pandemic conditions impact policing? This report assesses neighborhood racial disparities in arrests after COVID-19 stay-at-home orders in Boston, Charleston, Pittsburgh, and San Francisco census tracts (January 2019-August 2020).

In the week following stay orders, overall arrest rates were 66% (95% CI: 51-77%) lower on average. Although arrest rates steadily increased thereafter, most tracts did not reach pre-pandemic arrest levels. However, despite declines in nearly all census tracts, the magnitude of racial inequities in arrests remained unchanged. During the initial weeks of the pandemic, arrest rates declined significantly in areas with higher Black populations, but absolute rates in Black neighborhoods remain higher than pre-pandemic arrest rates in White neighborhoods. These findings support urban policy reforms that reconsider police capacity and presence, particularly as a mechanism for enforcing public health ordinances and reducing racial disparities.

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Solutions to Violence profiles 18 groups forging new paths to safety and healing that do not rely on the police or incarceration. The report uplifts restorative justice practitioners, community advocates, and other local leaders who are doing the day-to-day work needed to build stronger and healthier communities, help people heal, and hold those who cause harm responsible for their actions. In this report, readers will learn about a number of solutions, including these and many more:

• Restorative Response Baltimore’s Indigenous-based restorative approach to conflict and harm, which aids in community building and conflict resolution;
• The Health Alliance for Violence Intervention’s responses to violence which involve fostering community and hospital collaborations and advocating for systemic change;
• Advance Peace’s work to interrupt gun violence by creating transformational opportunities for young men of color

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Los Angeles, America’s second largest city, has a horrible secret. The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department – the fourth largest police department in the country – harbors dozens of criminal gangs within its ranks. These gangs have been involved in assaults, the creation of false evidence, and even murder. Now, with the help of the brave journalist Cerise Castle, the story can be told.

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Watch the full video on Youtube here.

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This article explains how the inequities embedded within the legal system serve to undermine social movements, magnify harms, and exploit the work of Black, Indigenous, and other activists of color in the process. The authors contribute to the growing collection of scholarship that questions the illusion of impartiality of our legal systems, theory, or praxis, and builds on activists’ work toward a society with equitable distribution of resources and equal access to wellness and joy.

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As the nation grapples with defining the proper roles and limits of police generally, and particularly in Black, Brown, and other communities that have borne disproportionate harms from police (as well as from many other institutions), we propose an approach that we believe would be both realistic and effective: adopting the goals, metrics, and lenses of public health. By replacing current performance metrics with public health metrics and flawed conceptions with ones that are based upon evidence, and by demanding agility and accountability in changing practices and policies when they are shown to cause harm, we can improve the health, safety, and well-being of communities across the United States. This article sketches out the way forward and provides some illustrative examples.

Explore the full resource here.