Continued advocacy for racial justice, police reform crucial: Police violence a pressing health issue
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* José Ramón Fernández-Peña

An African American colleague of mine owns two cars. But she doesn’t use either one when she goes to the grocery store. My friend walks to the grocery store because she is afraid that if she drives, she will be stopped by police.

I have been thinking a lot about my friend lately and how her life differs from my own. When I go to the grocery store, I don’t think for a moment that it could result in a police encounter, or perhaps the end of my life. Yet Black Americans live with this fact every day.

George Floyd’s death last May at the hands of police generated outrage across the country. That senseless act reignited the movements rightfully demanding the end of racial profiling, police violence and structural racism.

I thought at the time police reform would happen. And, in fact, over 30 states have passed scores of police oversight and reform laws as of April. These laws involve reforming police disciplinary systems, more transparency in misconduct cases and greater emphasis on community policing.

In March, H.R. 1280, the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, was passed by the House of Representatives. The bill would demand a higher level of culpability on police accountability, ban chokeholds and no-knock warrants in drug cases and mandate training on racial profiling and racial bias, among other provisions.

On April 20, a police officer was found guilty of Floyd’s murder. Yet even as the trial was being held, 20-year-old Daunte Wright was pulled over in Minnesota for an expired tag and killed by police. In Chicago, where I live, Adam Toledo, a 13-year-old boy, was shot and killed by police in March.

![Figure1](http://www.thenationshealth.org/http://www.thenationshealth.org/content/nathealth/51/4/3.1/F1.medium.gif)

[Figure1](http://www.thenationshealth.org/content/51/4/3.1/F1)

Also in Chicago, video of Anjanette Young has become public, allowing people to see firsthand the trauma the Black social worker endured as police mistakenly entered her home with guns drawn in 2019.

The frequency of unnecessary and aggressive police encounters with Black and brown Americans is why my friend is afraid to drive her cars.

There are surely many upstanding law enforcement officers, but racial and ethnic profiling and disastrous police encounters involving minorities happen too often to not be a public health problem.

A 2018 APHA policy statement addresses police violence as a public health issue. The statement shares ways to reduce police violence based on evidence-based strategies. Community programs for addressing harm and violence have been shown to increase public safety. Upstream efforts involving social determinants of health have also been effective. Investment in these strategies, as well as better surveilling of police conduct, shows promise.

Together, we must continue to advocate for racial justice and police reform. Overcoming systemic racism in policing and society can feel exhausting at times. But we must carry on with resolve, no matter the barriers.

Please share your views on policing in the U.S. with me at president{at}apha.org.

*To read and share this column in Spanish, visit *[www.thenationshealth.org/content/51/4/3.2](http://www.thenationshealth.org/content/51/4/3.2).

*   Copyright The Nation’s Health, American Public Health Association