ArticleHarm reduction journal2022
Total systems failure: police officers' perspectives on the impacts of the justice, health, and social service systems on people who use drugs.
Article in Harm reduction journal, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers.
What it found
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Who cites it
13 citing papers in PubMed.
- Access to non-police crisis response for people who use drugs: lessons from community safety response programs in two U.S. cities.BMC public health · 2026Article
- Arrest discretion and training needs for interacting with people with substance use disorders: a qualitative secondary analysis among police recruits in Washington State.Health & justice · 2026Article
- Access to health and harm reduction services during drug decriminalization in British Columbia, Canada: a mixed-method study.BMC public health · 2026Article
- Police officers' stigmatizing attitudes toward people who use drugs: implications for support of deflection.Harm reduction journal · 2026Article
- "I don't let anybody die on my watch": perspectives on the intersection of community overdose response and emergency medical services among people who use drugs in Seattle, WA.Harm reduction journal · 2025Article
- Rapid Assessment Amid an Injection Drug Use-Driven HIV Outbreak in Massachusetts' Merrimack Valley: Highlights from a Case Study.AIDS and behavior · 2025Article
- Correction: Rapid Assessment Amid an Injection Drug Use-Driven HIV Outbreak in Massachusetts' Merrimack Valley: Highlights from a Case Study.AIDS and behavior · 2025Article
- "It's because they're my kids, and I love them": Substance use disorders' impact on children and families: A secondary analysis.PloS one · 2025Article
- The Impact of Injectable Opioid Agonist Treatment (iOAT) on Involvement in Criminalized Activities: A Secondary Analysis from a Clinical Trial in Vancouver, BC.Substance abuse and rehabilitation · 2023Article
- Article
- A Realist Review of How Community-Based Drug Checking Services Could Be Designed and Implemented to Promote Engagement of People Who Use Drugs.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Review
- Depoliticization of Violence: Critical Limits of Risk Environment Frameworks in Drug Use Research.Inquiry : a journal of medical care organization, provision and financingReview
- Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundPolice in Canada have become main responders to behavioural health concerns in the community-a role that disproportionately harms people who use drugs (PWUD). Recent calls to defund the police emphasize the need to shift responsibility for non-criminal health issues from police to health and social services. This study explores the role of police interactions in responding to PWUD within the broader institutional and structural contexts in which they operate.
methodsWe conducted a qualitative thematic analysis of interviews with sixteen police officers across nine jurisdictions in British Columbia, Canada. We examined police officers' everyday policing experiences interacting with PWUD, enforcing drug laws, and working alongside other service sectors.
resultsOfficers explained that the criminal justice system is one component of a wider network of systems that collectively fail to meet the needs of PWUD. They recognized that PWUD who interact with police often experienced intersecting structural vulnerabilities such as poverty, homelessness, and intergenerational trauma. Harmful drug laws in conjunction with inadequate treatment and housing resources contributed to a funnelling of PWUD into interactions with police. They provided several recommendations for reform including specialized health and justice roles, formalized intersectoral collaboration, and poverty reduction.
conclusionsOverall, this study provides unique insights into the positioning and role of police officers within a "total systems failure" that negatively impact PWUD. Police have become responders-by-default for issues that are fundamentally related to people's health conditions and socioeconomic circumstances. Addressing failures across the health, social, and justice systems to meet the needs of PWUD will require an examination of the shortcomings across these systems, as well as substantial funding and system reforms.
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