We Cannot Police Our Way Out of a Pandemic
As millions of Americans reel from COVID-19 and its economic impacts, police departments are demanding more money. The NYPD wants $20 million to hire 475 new school police officers amid a city-wide fiscal crisis and government hiring freeze. In Chicago, Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s administration was revealed to have diverted $281.5 million — the majority of Chicago’s discretionary COVID-19 relief funding — to cover personnel costs for the city’s police department. Cities across the country — from Honolulu, Hawaii to Wichita, Kansas — are under scrutiny for using federal COVID-19 relief to balance police budgets while our public health infrastructure crumbles, the economy sinks, and police violence and extremism reach new heights. Ultimately, by investing in police rather than communities during the pandemic, cities are deepening the public health crisis and fueling the continued criminalization of communities of color.
Almost one year ago, as lockdowns swept the country, state and local officials granted police unprecedented power and resources to enforce COVID-19 public health orders. Many advocates and medical professionals pushed back — begging cities to respond by providing resources that keep people safe and well, including quality housing, free health care, fully funded education, guaranteed incomes, worker protections, and rent and mortgage cancellations. Yet cities poured dwindling resources into policing and punishment to flatten the curve. Police quickly stationed themselves in communities of color under the guise of facilitating public health and safety. The result? Many of us were forced to fight dual pandemics: COVID-19 and policing.
As community leaders and civil rights advocates predicted, trying to police our way out of a pandemic has only opened the door to new opportunities to criminalize, harass, and surveil Black, Latinx, and Native communities. As white Americans and scores of conservative politicians, including the former president, openly flouted public health orders, police stopped, arrested, and harassed the communities tasked with keeping the country running. According to Community Resource Hub’s COVID19 Policing Project, Black Americans are 4.5 times more likely to be policed and punished for COVID-19 health violations than white people. Black women, who are more likely to be essential workers, are 5 times more likely than white women to be policed and punished for COVID-19 health violations. In New York City, Black and Latinx residents accounted for 81% of the 374 social-distancing enforcement summonses between March 16th and May 5th despite making up 21% and 27% of the population respectively. Few examples encapsulate this racist dynamic better than what we saw at the U.S. Capitol on January 6. As white protestors rioted and stormed the Capitol, most were maskless and proudly defied public health orders. Police officers did not stop them; they helped them.
As police target Black and Brown communities for supposed public health violations, they themselves resist adhering to the same rules. Many have refused to wear masks and follow social distancing guidelines. When Americans took to the street last summer to protest police violence and systemic racism, pundits fretted over crowds fueling COVID-19 infections. But community leaders took COVID-19 seriously, supplying masks to marchers and organizing a range of COVID-19 appropriate events, including socially distant speak outs. It was the police that showed no concern for pandemic protocols. Cops kettled protestors in small spaces, destroyed medic tents, seized masks from demonstrators, and overcrowded jail cells. After a year’s worth of evidence, it is clear that police have not stopped the spread of COVID-19 — they have exacerbated it — often with the support of federal and state governments.
We have seen what divesting in comprehensive health services and investing in cops looks like. Fourteen million students attend schools with police, but no counselor, nurse, psychologist, or social worker. And we are now in the midst of an unprecedented youth mental health crisis. There is no research that shows police improve student safety or health. There is, however, a slew of evidence that school police endanger Black and Brown students and fuel the school-to-prison pipeline. We need to stop conflating public health and policing and invest in resources that keep people healthy.
Some argue that crime is on the rise due to COVID-19, making police more important than ever, but the data tells a more complicated story. In an analysis of 28 cities, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania found that overall, crime decreased during the pandemic. While there has been a rise in gun violence and homicides, much of the violence we are seeing is reflective of the dire economic conditions in this country. The pandemic and resulting federal inaction pushed millions into poverty. Combined with our fraying social safety net, we are seeing record rates of unemployment, hunger, housing insecurity, and homelessness. That bleak economic landscape creates the conditions for violence and desperation. These are not problems police can solve.
We cannot police our way out of a pandemic or to better economic conditions, and communities know it. Black and Brown organizers around the country are coalescing around a new demand: COVID-19 without cops. From Los Angeles to St. Louis, communities are demanding an end to pandemic policing. They are pulling money out of our dysfunctional carceral state and pouring it into housing, education, community services, and income support — all of which are shown to improve public health and safety. The answer is simple: we’ve got to invest in the people who need help — not those who are tasked with policing them.
We failed to control the spread of COVID-19 in this country for many reasons: an inept and openly hostile federal government, radically defunded public infrastructure, a rogue for-profit health care system. And the list goes on. But the biggest reason of them all? Leaders made — and continue to make — the wrong public health investments. Healthy communities are not made through policing, criminalization, and incarceration. The longer we rely on police to fix the pandemic, the sicker we’ll all be.
*written March 2021*
