myAIPMPolicing the pandemic: Managing the police response to Covid-19 Coronavirus
"Professor Karl Roberts is a Consultant on Health Security, Law Enforcement and Policing for the World Health Organisation. In an exclusive article for Policing Insight, he examines the different roles police may have during a pandemic and the challenges this creates alongside some suggested approaches to developing the police response.
Today the world is grappling with a global pandemic, Covid-19. This has caused much debate on the levels of preparedness of governments, health services, and the general population to deal with the challenges this virus represents.
However, within all of this debate relatively little discussion has considered the role of the police in pandemics. This is very surprising because for many people the police are the emergency service of last resort and would therefore be expected to be substantially involved in any response. The purpose of this article is then, to explore some of the different roles police may have during pandemics and some of the challenges that this creates, although this is not intended as an exhaustive list. The article also aims to suggest some approaches to the development of police response in the complex context created by pandemics. In doing this it is hoped that this article might aid police involved in the very difficult task of planning their responses to Covid-19."
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Policing the pandemic: Managing the police response to Covid-19 Coronavirus, Professor Karl Roberts, Policing Insight Magazine, 2020