LEPH2021 is a key event in your calendar for 2021, a unique conference for anyone from policing or public health involved in confronting complex social, medical and behavioral challenges. Over five days in March 2021, and with multiple pre-conference satellite meetings on specific topics, the conference addresses the complex and diverse intersections of law enforcement and public health, involving practitioners, policy makers and researchers from these and other related sectors.

We have seen many examples of current social, humanitarian, security and broad public health issues requiring an inter-sectoral approach – the pandemic of Covid-19 disease is the latest, but not the last. Bringing the law enforcement and public health sectors together to address these problems is a rapidly emerging field, being explored in all jurisdictions and for a multitude of problems. 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.

Law enforcement is both a sector and an activity; public health is likewise a sector and an activity: together they have common goals of inclusive wellbeing and safety of the communities they serve. There are many professions engaged in these endeavours, and too often professional and disciplinary boundaries constrain our ability to develop optimum strategies to achieve these goals. Issues of governance and collaborative leadership are fundamental to effective alliances.

The Covid-19 pandemic is creating worrying challenges for communities throughout the world. Like so many other local, national, regional and international emergencies in the past, law enforcement and public health professionals are again being called upon to act collectively in managing these seemingly endless challenges – these are not problems police or health authorities can solve by themselves. But do we know enough about how to form effective partnerships between all the key stakeholders?

At LEPH2021 you can come together with like-minded people from all law enforcement sectors, all branches of public health, all levels of government and all affected communities to explore how effective partnerships are formed and sustained. The LEPH Conferences are heavily weighted towards promoting collaborative action – in practice, research, policy development and in the integration of these three elements. We present the latest research findings across a wide range of fields, but also and importantly we showcase experience, the valuable lessons learned from innovative collaborative programs, in the U.S., in the Americas, and globally.

Bring the difficult issues you are confronting in your daily work and in your community: you will find others tackling the same issues, and you will hear of others’ creative approaches, and leave with ideas for your own work. And bring your experience: you will find a keen and willing audience to hear of your learning. And the networks you build will be an ongoing and shared resource of guidance and assistance.