Policing the pandemic: estimating spatial and racialized inequities in New York City police enforcement of COVID-19 mandates

ABSTRACT

The use of policing to enforce public health guidelines has historically produced harmful consequences, and early evidence from the police enforcement of COVID-19 mandates suggested Black New Yorkers were disproportionately represented in arrests. The over-policing of Black and low-income neighborhoods during a pandemic risks increased transmission, potentially exacerbating existing health inequities. To assess racialized and class-based inequities in the enforcement of COVID-19 mandates at the ZIP-code-level, we conducted a retrospective spatial analysis of demographic factors and public health policing in New York City from 12 March–24 May 2020. Policing outcomes (COVID-19 criminal court summonses and public health and nuisance arrests) were measured using publicly available police administrative data. After controlling for two measures of social distancing compliance, a standard deviation increase in percentage of Black residents was associated with a 73% increase (95% CI: 35%, 123%) in the COVID-19-specific summons rate and a 34% increase (95% CI: 17%, 53%) in the public health and nuisance arrest rate. Percentage of Black residents and historical stop-and-frisk rates had stronger associations with COVID-19 summons rates than multiple measures of social distancing compliance. Findings demonstrate pronounced spatial and racialized inequities in pandemic policing of public health that mimic historical policing practices deemed racially discriminatory. If the field of public health supports criminalization and punishment as public health strategies, it risks reinscribing racialized health inequities.

KEYWORDS:

• COVID-19
• coronavirus
• police
• law enforcement
• race/ethnicity

Author contributions

SK conceptualized the study. SK, EB, and JZH conducted the data analysis with guidance from SJP as senior author. All authors contributed to manuscript writing and reviewed, edited, and approved the final article

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed here.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported in part by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, National Institutes of Health under Grant award [1 K01 DA045955].