Leading Health Group: Killings by Police Are a Public Health Issue
November 14, 2018Three years of organizing came down to a few minutes and a room of public-health professionals voting with clickers.
The American Public Health Association (APHA) on Tuesday overwhelmingly approved a statement recognizing law enforcement violence as a public health issue. It was one of a dozen policy statements adopted at the organization’s annual conference, including another that opposes the separation of migrant families at the U.S.-Mexico border.
The vote at the organization’s annual meeting in San Diego is an important move for the nation’s most prominent public health organization, which has more than 25,000 members. It may galvanize new research that focuses on the root causes of law enforcement violence, encourage its members to think beyond issues such as police body or dashboard cameras, and lend added heft to community-based criminal-justice reform efforts.
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Co-written with Laura Huss