We are pleased to announce that a new issue of the Journal of Community
Safety and Well-Being (CSWB) is now available online! This volume contains many articles relating directly to LEPH2019 so be sure to read and refresh to be fully abreast of current LEPH issues.  We've linked the peer reviewed articles on our LEPH2019 Conference page however to view the full issue and the Table of Contents or to download articles, please visit
https://journalcswb.ca/index.php/cswb/issue/view/13

Federal agencies will receive $25 million from Congress to study gun violence in a government spending deal reached by House and Senate negotiators - a major win for Democrats who have long pushed for dedicated funding to research the issue, a source told The Hill.

"Democrats have broken the ban on funding for the first time in decades," the source said.

The deal includes $12.5 million each for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and National Institutes of Health to study gun violence and ways to prevent it.

It's the first time in more than 20 years that Congress has appropriated money for gun violence research.

"Taking action should never have taken more than 20 years," said Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), who helped secure the funding. 

"The significance of this achievement cannot be understated, and it follows on the progress we made earlier this year by holding the first hearing on gun violence research in more than two decades."

Congress stopped funding gun violence research in 1996 after an amendment passed blocking agencies from using federal funds to advocate for gun control.

While the so-called Dickey Amendment - named for its author, former Sen. Jay Dickey (R-Ark.) - does not prevent federal agencies from studying gun violence, that was its effect.

Continue reading...

Call for Papers: Special Issue of the Journal of Organisational Ethnography
‘Police Encounters’

This Special Issue arises from the growing interest in the practices of police officers in their interactions with citizens. In particular, we are interested in developing a rich understanding of those encounters initiated by police officers, requiring a citizen produce an identity card or comply with a search.  The PDF details everything you need to know regarding format, deadlines, etc.

JOE special issue CfP draft 3.pdf

Last Saturday I chaired a forum at the International Law Enforcement and Public Health Conference in Edinburgh. Senior police from Scotland and south of the Border were there, along with representatives from Portugal and Canada who’ve both embarked on radical changes in drug policy.

Continue reading...

Check out some of your favourite LEPH2019 session presentations on the LEPH2019 online program.  Sessions with uploaded presentations appear in bold.  If you've submitted a presentation but it's not linked, it's possible your presentation was too big.  We have an 8G limit for uploading, so please convert your powerpoint to pdf and double check it fits within the limit.  Thank you!

  This year Edinburgh played host to the first GLEPHA Phd workshop and master class as part of the LEPH2019 satellite event series.  The workshop is designed to engage and support those seeking to create future positive benefits and safer communities through their research, and saw Phd students from across the globe share that research with their peers.

Chair of the event, and our Education Special Interest Group, Staff Sergeant Jamie Clover, along with other GLEPHA board members, selected Robert Skinner's presentation  Approximately there: Positioning moves across VRS/VRI interactions in a frontline policing context  as the top presentation for 2019.

Three other presentations were identified as highly commendable contributions to public health and safety.  We encourage you to sign up as a GLEPHA member as further details of these presentations will be released through the GLEPHA newsletter.  See the website for full details on how to become a member and for a list of all the benefits of membership.

Why do we teach them that a person with a knife is always a lethal threat?

Few things are more harrowing than watching a video of a police officer confront a person in emotional crisis armed with a knife or other similar object. The officer almost always points a gun at that person and yells, “Drop it!” If staring down the barrel of a gun isn’t enough to give a person pause, yelling at him or her is unlikely to make a difference. Continue reading...