Recently, I published a commentary in the San Antonio Express-News detailing the ways in which the Biden administration can and should utilize its executive authority to enact reforms across the dozens of federal agencies employing over 130,000 federal law enforcement officers. Such an effort would both meet needed reforms in these agencies and set a path for local and state law enforcement.
Policing Reform Continues Even as the Senate Fails
While partisanship doomed congressional action, state-level legislation and White House leadership can still promote accountability and transparency.
Using Crafts to Find Common Ground – printmaking with veterans
David runs a nonprofit art organization, Frontline Arts, that uses craft, printmaking, and papermaking as a connective practice among veterans and also between veterans and other communities. It’s a way to find commonality in different yet familiar experiences, reclaim and tell personal stories, and build connection toward greater positive change.
Envisioning the Future: Police & Public Health
Happy to share a recent publication I wrote with colleagues for the Journal of Community Safety and Well-Being, a Canadian-based international journal founded on the principles of multi-sector collaboration. The piece details our current project to document practical examples from jurisdictions across the world of alternative approaches to solving entrenched social challenges and problems without relying upon a punitive and enforcement-led policing model
“What does the construction of a toilet in a favela teach us about the failure of the war on drugs?”
(Coverage of our article on harm reduction & right to the city in VICE) Excited to see lengthy coverage in VICE of my recent journal article, A Right to the City? Harm Reduction as Urban Community Development and Social Inclusion, in MIT's Projections. You can find the article (in Spanish) here. It was published on …
Police and Harm Reduction
Sharing the 2018 guidance document I wrote for law enforcement personnel around the world on practical steps they can take to advance public safety, public health, and public confidence, particularly in relation to drug enforcement. As overdose deaths, police violence, and public protests all continue to soar, this guidance has become even more important. There are other options to keep communities healthy and safe.
“Mexico Is Setting a Global Example on HIV Treatment” — But the president’s recent funding cuts to civil society organizations threaten to imperil their progress.
**Featured interview in this article by Anne Deslandes, published by Foreign Policy on November 13, 2019. Available here.** HIV in Mexico is once again a time bomb that will explode.” That’s how Aram Barra described the current trajectory of the immunodeficiency virus in the country at the International AIDS Society Conference on HIV Science in Mexico City …
Book Launch—City of Omens: A Search for the Missing Women of the Borderlands – July 11 NYC
I am very happy to host this book launch and moderate the subsequent discussion with Dan Werb, Maia Szalavitz, and Dr. Patty Gonzalez-Zuñiga, and featuring Dan's new book City of Omens: A Search for the Missing Women of the Borderlands. Having visited and supported harm reduction and community safety work in Tijuana for the past several …
Portuguese & Russian language versions of “Police & Harm Reduction” now available
A quick post to share that my guidance document for law enforcement - "Police and Harm Reduction" - is now available for free download in both Russian and Portuguese in addition to English. A Spanish language version is coming soon. As a reminder as to what this guidance document is about: "In many cities around the …
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A public health approach to policing
“We have a choice: do we want to be a repressive or supportive service? We recognize all people are equal before the law & must be treated as such & those most affected must lead solutions.” - Asst Commissioner of Amsterdam @Politie addressing police from around world #AIDS2018
On the last day of the 2018 International AIDS Conference held in Amsterdam, I was lucky to join 25 police and civil society leaders from several countries across Sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia on a visit and meeting with the Amsterdam police branch of the Dutch National Police. The meeting was held at the Amsterdam police headquarters. The focus was on what it means to embrace a public health approach to policing. Is this possible? What does it mean for police and society?
