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LEAHN Director, Nick Crofts, talks policing, harm reduction and public health in Glasgow

The Partnership discussion on Public Health and Policing in Glasgow: strengths, challenges and common ground in Scotland

Report by Janine Ewen

Professor Nick Crofts from the Centre of Law Enforcement and Public Health received an invitation by Dr Lucy Pickering, a lecturer in Sociology from the Institute of Health and Wellbeing Department at the University of Glasgow, to draw upon his experiences on working towards a harm reduction strategy with law enforcement on the 12th of May held at the MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit.

The seminar was attended by members of the Drugs – Statement of Opinion (STOP), Police Scotland’s Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency, the Glasgow Drug Crisis Centre, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, with insights sought from both students and affiliated researchers from Glasgow University.

Professor Crofts shared his journey from a community activist during his university education training in Public Health and Epidemiology, to steering change and police practice across South East Asia as a response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic. He also recently presented at the UN Crime Congress in Doha.

Crofts stated, “Harm reduction is part of the efforts towards police reform, yet the adoption of Public Health activities by law enforcement is not old news, but to many it is a new dialogue of thought”.

The presentation entitled, ‘The role of law enforcement in public health – better integrating police and public health’ identified the achievements from a harm minimisation philosophy into policing by diverting away from a continuous culture of punitive arrests or charges by the Criminal Justice system, in exchange for discretion, education and/or treatment.

“We have an officer from our Law Enforcement and HIV Network (LEAHN) who is a shining example of someone who sets aside personal morality for community interactions and cooperation. He provides condoms for sex workers and continues to pass on a message that the police must not use contraception as evidence. It is evident how many friendships have been built upon this”.

Professor Crofts acknowledged the world known Scottish Violence Reduction Unit within Police Scotland which was mentioned at the Law Enforcement and Public Health (LEPH) conference last October in Amsterdam. The Unit previously ran as an area response project in developing sustainable reductions in violence within the Strathclyde police force [before the centralisation of the police force from eight single units across Scotland], but has now expanded into a national centre of expertise on violence prevention.

The session allowed for an after discussion amongst attendee’s to consider experiences at the frontline.  A mixture of struggles based on securing trust, sharing information, and the presence of key stakeholders at the same table are examples of similar challenges people still express across the globe as the bridge between policing and public health narrows.

A member from the Glasgow Drug Crisis Centre highlighted the fear that can hold back service providers from police involvement in case work:

“We do not want to put our service users at risk who confide in us about their circumstances. As a service we want to build and maintain a lasting relationship”.

Kenny Simpson, an ex-police officer from Police Scotland, now working as a Unit Coordinator for STOP as part of the Police Scotland Specialist Crime Division responded:

“We appreciate the worries members of the public have in regards to sharing information with the police. A strong example of how we are trying to change this is the development of informal group meetings called ‘drug train monitoring groups – people who have different backgrounds who can respect views, but help lead the way forward for improved practices. There are groups in Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Stirling and Glasgow”.

Everyone who attended the seminar found common ground for further work in the field of harm reduction in Scotland, from building rapid responses amongst organisations, to reviewing long term impact assessments for people who require a healthy network of support.

Professor Kate Hunt, Associate Director of the MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit has prompted for public health and policing to be a continued agenda.

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