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Private Policing and Public Health: A Neglected Relationship

Policing, in its various forms and dimensions, has indelible and complex connections to public health. The conventional functions of policing—promoting social order, security, and crime prevention—are animated by many issues easily framed by a public health lens (e.g., forms of violence, mental illnesses, drug abuse, homelessness). Policing with a crime control focus can make public health worse by criminalizing vulnerable people and undermining access to health and harm reduction resources. Conversely, policing with a health focus can help link vulnerable people to treatment and recovery-oriented resources. Recognizing these connections, researchers have largely focused on the public health effects of policing by the public police, and practitioners have worked to transform the public police with population health in mind. This article suggests that although this focus on transforming the public police is necessary to the advancement of public health, it neglects to understand connections between private policing and public health. This conceptual article argues for the need to widen our focus beyond the public police when exploring policing’s relationship to public health. This expanded view, I suggest, is important to discovering the ways in which the health vulnerabilities of people and places may be compromised by different policing mentalities and practices. At the same time, it may provide clues about ways in which policing beyond the police might creatively and virtuously promote public health.