Defying Boundaries: A Global Village Might Help to Heal a Republic
Norman E. Taylor
Editor-in-Chief, Journal of Community Safety and Well-Being
“Recognising the recurrent failure of approaches built within isolated individual sectors by themselves, it is important to bring together practitioners, policymakers and academics to explore the nature of the myriad interactions between police and public health.”
Excerpt from the LEPH2021 Promotional Website
The Sixth International Conference on Law Enforcement & Public Health
Philadelphia, PA March 22-26, 2021
“We’ve seen a force that would shatter our nation, rather than share it.”
Excerpt from “The Hill We Climb”
Amanda Gorman, Inaugural Poet, January 20, 2021
Fifteen months ago, over 500 of us from over 50 countries were departing the Edinburgh venue as delegates to the fifth international LEPH conference, to the common refrain of “See you in Philadelphia!” Little did we know of what would begin to transpire mere weeks from then. The world would enter its worst public health calamity in more than a century. The host country on deck for our next gathering would simultaneously witness a months-long descent to the brink of social and constitutional catastrophe.
As a direct result of the former, LEPH 2021 will now be a fully virtual gathering. With reference to the latter, it seems fitting that the conversations will remain hosted and centred in the birthplace of that injured republic, in a city and state that featured heavily in the recent challenges to US democracy. Already, recent statements coming from the newly installed administration of President Joseph R. Biden seem to celebrate America’s return to its “leadership role” in global bodies such as the World Health Organization, the Paris Accord, and others. One can only hope they might better aim to collaborate. Perhaps, even to listen and learn.
The first quotation above could not be more spot-on in capturing the collective opportunities that the LEPH movement offers to its growing and worldwide constituent base, and to all the human systems they represent. The LEPH2021 organizers have rolled this sentiment into the conference theme, Defying Boundaries. Our Journal stands in full support of this theme. We also hope that through the excellent sessions in March, we might all move further to expanding the phrase “between police and public health”, to a lasting recognition that the energies and resources we dedicate to community safety, and those that we aim toward health, well-being, and social equity, are in fact seeking outcomes that are one and the same.
In the second quote, this young and impressive poet laureate whose debut instantly galvanized a global audience, was directing this phrase at a national and macro level, specific to the USA. But, her message also has micro application, everywhere. From policy offices to the front lines of community service, we continue to see fealty to sectoral authority, jurisdiction, and budgetary control serve to shatter and fragment what could be so much more effective as collaborative efforts, shared and united in common cause.
In recent years, global communities-of-practice have been aligning under the LEPH and CSWB movements, among similar labels and ambitions. As the conference program for Philadelphia reveals, their work has advanced on many fronts to break down barriers and demonstrate the power and impact of multi-disciplinary and multi-agency collaboration.
As we look ahead to compounding challenges in pandemic recovery, restoring economic prosperity with greater equity, saving the planet … and yes, restoring the health and global stature of one damaged model of democracy … defying boundaries has never been more urgent, nor have better ways ever been more available and held more promise.
