New York City ZIP codes with a higher percentage of Black residents had significantly higher rates of COVID-19-specific criminal court summonses and public health and nuisance arrests in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new study by Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health researchers. Pandemic policing also mirrored the discretionary nature of the New York stop-and-frisk program, which was deemed unconstitutional in 2013 due to racially discriminatory practices.
The findings add to a growing body of evidence that even when police are tasked with activities outside traditional law enforcement, such as during the COVID-19 pandemic, the results reflect similar patterns of racialized criminalization and punishment. The results are published in the journal Critical Public Health.
“In addition to the potential for direct physical harm as a result of these police stops, the use of police to enforce public health mandates could be especially dangerous during an infectious disease pandemic,” said Sandhya Kajeepeta, a doctoral student in the Department of Epidemiology at Columbia Mailman School, and first author. “NYPD officers have reported high rates of infection and have low mask-wearing compliance themselves. Thus, police stops, which involve forced close physical interactions, increase the risk of COVID spread.”
Read the full article at the Columbia Mailman School of Public Health.
