Collateral Damage: The Health Effects of Invasive Police Encounters in New York City

Abstract

The health effects of police surveillance practices for the community at-large are unknown. Using microlevel health data from the 2009-2012 New York City Community Health Survey (NYC-CHS) nested within mesolevel data from the 2009-2012 NYC Stop, Question, and Frisk (NYC-SQF) dataset, this study evaluates contextual and ethnoracially variant associations between invasive aspects of pedestrian stops and multiple dimensions of poor health. Results reveal that living in neighborhoods where pedestrian stops are more likely to become invasive is associated with worse health. Living in neighborhoods where stops are more likely to result in frisking show the most consistent negative associations. More limited deleterious effects can be attributed to living in neighborhoods where stops are more likely to involve use of force or in neighborhoods with larger ethnoracial disparities in frisking or use of force. However, the health effects of pedestrian stops vary by ethnoracial group in complex ways. For instance, minorities who live in neighborhoods with a wider ethno racial disparity in police behavior have poorer health outcomes in most respects, but blacks have lower odds of diabetes when they live in neighborhoods where they face a higher risk that a stop will involve use of force by police than do whites. The findings suggest that the consequences of the institutionalization of the carceral state are far-reaching.

Temporal Trends and Racial/Ethnic Inequalities for Legal Intervention Injuries Treated in Emergency Departments: US Men and Women Age 15–34, 2001–2014

“…[1][2][3] A number of recent papers by public health scholars have addressed these issues: Some have examined the ways in which racially discriminatory policing influences health and community cohesion. 4,5 Others have explored various options for using public health monitoring systems to provide better data to epidemiologists and the public on police-related fatalities and gunshot injuries. [6][7][8] Still, others have produced analyses of existing injury and mortality data derived from hospital records and death certificates.…”

Network exposure and excessive use of force

“…Police misconduct has a direct negative impact on citizens resulting in the tragic loss of life, massive racial disparities in criminal‐justice–related outcomes, and negative health consequences for neighborhoods and populations experiencing first‐ or even second‐hand police abuses (Bor, Venkataramani, Williams, & Tsai, ; Sewell & Jefferson, ; Tyler & Wakslak, ). Police misconduct, abuse, and violence also rattles the foundation of trust between residents and police (Sunshine & Tyler, ).…”

Police Stops and Searches of Indigenous People in Minneapolis: The Roles of Race, Place, and Gender

“…Higher levels of police stops and searches are associated with a variety of negative outcomes, making disparities in police interactions an important policy concern regardless of what causes this disparity. For example, being stopped and searched by police is associated with increased risk for numerous mental and physical health problems (Geller, Fagan, Tyler, & Link, 2014;Sewell & Jefferson, 2016). Although this association does not necessarily imply that police stops cause health issues, it nonetheless suggests that understanding the nature of Native American interactions with police is an important public policy concern.…”