Trust Not Trauma – Policing and Public Health

An important new report looks at the relationship between policing practices and public health. Stress on the Streets (SOS): Race, Policing, Health, and Increasing Trust, not Trauma, released last month by Human Impact Partners, the Ohio Justice & Policy Center, and the Ohio Organizing Collaborative analyzed police practices in two cities – Cincinnati and Akron.

“The tension and distrust between people of color and police in the United States is an underestimated public health crisis,” the report opens. “Shocking cases of mistreatment, injury, and death grab headlines and go viral on social media, but the mental, emotional, and behavioral impacts of this fraught relationship affect communities of color and police officers in ways less often discussed.”

The report outlines the following four models of policing:

  • Community-oriented policing described by a White House task force as police working “with neighborhood residents to coproduce public safety.”
  • Problem-solving policing, in which police seek to proactively identify and address the root causes of crime.
  • Focused policing, including cracking down on a specific crime or offense, stepping up police presence in hot spots, and focusing on repeat offenders.
  • Standard policing, which targets all crimes across an entire jurisdiction and aims to improve public safety by increasing the number of police, random patrolling, or responding more rapidly to calls.

They suggest that the standard model is the least effective in reducing crime, building trust, and addressing inequities, while the problem-solving model is most effective, especially when combined with the community-oriented model. They found that Akron’s policing model is most similar to the standard model, while Cincinnati uses community-oriented and problem-solving policing.

Check out the recommendations, see the new website, and read the full report here.

By Shari Silberstein

Since 2000, Shari Silberstein has dedicated her career to transforming the justice system from one that harms to one that heals. Under her leadership, and using campaign strategies she helped develop, Equal Justice USA has helped end the death penalty in nine states, built first-of-its-kind conservative and evangelical coalitions for justice reform, secured millions in state funding for healing services to families of murder victims, launched an innovative model for training and dialogue between police and communities on trauma and race equity, and strengthened dozens of local organizations across the nation working for justice, violence reduction, and healing. Shari has been a national voice in helping to break down the silos between criminal justice reformers and crime survivor advocates. Her expertise has been a source in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the New Yorker, and Harper’s Magazine, and she has written op-eds for an array of media outlets, including Fox News, the Marshall Project, and U.S. News and World Report. Shari has a bachelor's degree in film from New York University and a master's degree in Middle Eastern studies from the University of Texas at Austin.