Policing is a public health crisis
Health is a product of the conditions we live in. And the long history of structural injustice toward Indigenous and Black people has suffocated the health of these communities today. The disparities are simply damning. In Canada the number one predictor of wealth is race. And a major predictor of health is income. The inequities facing Indigenous and Black people extends across our health-care system with yawning gaps in life expectancy.
We must also acknowledge that our health-care system has its own history of racism and prejudice. And that it often enables the discriminatory practice of other sectors, most notably police services, especially when it comes to caring for the patient populations most impacted by structural disadvantage. These are experiences that we have lived and seen in our practice as BIPOC health-care providers.
As physicians, there is no denying that the current state of policing is a public health crisis. The recent deaths and stories of Regis Korchinski-Pacquet, Chantel Moore, and Ejaz Choudry, amongst many others, are painful reminders of rampant discrimination. The extent of anti-Indigenous and anti-Black racism cuts across our judicial and criminal systems. The facts are that Indigenous and Black people are more likely to be stopped by police, criminalized or killed. This contributes to a cycle of lateral violence and increased policing with detrimental outcomes. More than 30 per cent of inmates in Canadian prisons are Indigenous –– even though they make up just 5 per cent of our country’s population. In Toronto alone, Black people are 20 times more likely to be shot by police.
Decades of anemic reforms and stockpiled reports have failed our communities. The reality is that we cannot police our way out of systemic racism and systemic poverty.
The solution is not to reform, but to rebuild. The policy solutions are multifaceted and we must finally begin addressing the pathologies of policing –– not merely its symptoms.
First, we must ensure full transparency around policing budgets. The decisions around how and why such a large public spend are made cannot be clandestine. These are considerable investments with major implications on the well-being of our city, and Indigenous and Black communities must be engaged in the prioritizing of spending decisions with meaningful inclusion on the Toronto Police Services Board.
We must also begin defunding the police. This means an immediate start of reducing the budget and number of police in half. These funds should instead be diverted to rebuild, redesign and reconcile. We should invest in areas that we know promote the health and safety of our communities. A health-in-all policies approach would prioritize decent housing for all, education, child care and secure employment. Our current approach is punishing communities on two fronts –– it is underfunding evidence-informed investments for health promotion and then criminalizing the paucity of opportunities.
Finally, we must disallow the use of force by police and prohibit their ability to cause bodily harm when interacting with people. Armed officers should not respond to non-violent community calls. In fact, the presence of weapons often exacerbates critical situations. The continued presence and use of weapons and deadly force further adds to the trauma in communities already adversely affected by over-policing. Instead, we must adequately fund community health outreach workers who are trained in de-escalation tactics and a trauma-informed approach. Wellness checks should never be a death sentence.
The status quo has only been driving unnecessary deaths and suffering. There is too much pain, grief and hurt for any inaction to continue to take hold. These are political choices that will require moral will. But we can no longer divorce these decisions from the health, safety and well-being of our city. It is well past time to start listening to Indigenous and Black voices before they are saying “I can’t breathe.”
Dr. Suzanne Shoush is a family physician and Indigenous health co-lead at the Department of Family and Community Medicine at the University of Toronto. Semir Bulle (@SemirBulle) is a medical student and co-president of the Black Medical Student Association at the University of Toronto. Dr. Andrew Boozary (@drandrewb) is a physician and assistant professor at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health. The authors are co-founders of Doctors for Defunding Police.