In case you missed it, here is how our LEPH2021 key people have introduced the 6th International Conference on Law Enforcement and Public Health and invited you to join.

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February 2021

Rory O’Hara, MSW Student, School of Social Work, College of Public Health, Temple University

Sarah DeLucca, M.A., PhD student, Department of Criminal Justice, College of Liberal Arts, Temple University

The virtual platform for the 6th International Law Enforcement and Public Health Conference 2021 (LEPH2021) means that the conference is more accessible for students than ever before.

Students from all backgrounds are encouraged to participate and engage with other researchers, scholars and practitioners from around the world. By learning from different world perspectives for improving community safety and well-being, students can learn how to better interrogate and understand challenges and opportunities, especially focusing on advancing racial, ethnic, gender, socioeconomic and equity.

As a student, being part of the conversation at LEPH2021 is crucial to enhance our critical thinking abilities while gaining insights from other disciplines and helping you to engage with peers and colleagues in the emerging field of LEPH.

The LEPH conference series fosters tangible collaborations between law enforcement, public health and communities. It needs your involvement to ensure these collaborations include the unique perspective that is brought by students. Now, it is more important than ever, to bring diverse and unheard voices of students to such an important and constructive conversation.

The involvement of students across all ages and experiences will contribute to building a global and diverse network while making lifelong connections with practitioners to collaborate with in the future.

Without you, there would be no input from the next generation of leaders, scholars and practitioners, because we are the voices and leaders of tomorrow.

Check if you are eligible for a registration through your university here. You can also become a member of the Global Law Enforcement and Public Health Association.

Sarah and Rory.

 

January 2021

Professor Scott Burris

Professor of Law and Public Health, and Director, Center for Public Health Law Research, Temple University

What better time than during a global pandemic, and what better place than a country resonating with cries of “defund the police,” to convene a world-wide virtual conference of people trying to improve practice at the intersection of public health and policing. No, really: I invite you to join in and make LEPH21 a milestone on the path to law enforcement/public health collaboration.

Both fields are old and set in their ways.  The world has changed around them, and often seems unappreciative if not hostile.  Yet fostering human security and well-being has never been a more urgent challenge.   The Global LEPH Association (GLEPHA) stands as a unique and powerful initiative to support cooperation, problem-solving and research to create new possibilities for the delivery of essential social services. As a researcher, I appreciate the chance to hear from a diverse and global set of practitioners, and to share what we are learning in our research on law and public health.

Along with the main conference, my Center for Public Health Law Research is sponsoring a set of satellite presentations and discussions on empirical research on the health effects of current laws and law enforcement practices.  This satellite, funded by the National Science Foundation Law and Science Program, is a global gathering of people whose work in public health law research (also known as legal epidemiology) informs practice and policy on law enforcement and public health.  All LEPH particpants are invited to register separately for the satellite at no extra cost.

Regards,

Scott Burris

December 2020

Mukta Sharma, PhD

Regional Advisor, HIV/AIDS Hepatitis and Tuberculosis, WHO South East Asia Regional Office
& Board of Directors, GLEPHA

The aims of public health and public policing are exactly the same – ensuring the safety and well-being of the populations, yet the discourse, language and tools are so far from each other that one could be forgiven for seeing these are two completely different entities with different goals. Never before have we been confronted by the need for public safety, public health and emergency responses to come together as during now as we continue to fight the Covid-19 pandemic and its consequences. More than ever before, we must speak each other’s language, or at least to understand it.  We must understand what works to create understanding and partnership, and reflect not only on the evidence and tools, but better ways to share that across the law enforcement and public health agencies.

While the fields of law enforcement and public health may appear to have many disagreements on the surface, we at GLEPHA are committed to providing a safe space for all those committed to achieving effective and inclusive partnership approaches to complex health and security issues. This is what we strive to provide, and what we hope you will find, at the 6th International Conference on Law Enforcement and Public Health.

Please join us at the LEPH 2021 conference, where all of us – be it students, practitioners, academics and the wider community – can dialogue, agree on approaches, and act to secure the wellbeing of our communities.  Covid-19 has taught us that we do not need to be face to face to be close, and technology that taught us virtual platforms can connect people at any time and any place. I look forward to seeing you, connecting with you and learning from each other at the LEPH 2021 conference.

Thank you, Mukta

November 2020

Jamie Clover, Police Fellow, GLEPHA

In early 2020, when Chief Dale McFee of the Edmonton Police Service assigned me to engage, support and learn from the Global Law Enforcement and Public Health Association (GLEPHA), the world was changing.  The COVID-19 virus was in the early stages of migration, providing only a whisper of the future devastation to the lives and livelihoods to be lost.  Tensions between law enforcement and racialized communities solidified into a movement, seeking real action to defund policing institutions and end the longstanding systemic racism that our community’s experience.  Efforts as an Association to understand and respond, and continue to pay sufficient and sensitive attention to the issues while managing everyone’s health, felt at times insurmountable.

Cancelling the 6th International Conference on Law Enforcement and Public Health, however, was never an option.  It is imperative now and at this juncture to create a space for academics, students, practitioners and the community to engage with each other, listen to each other, and take action with each other to pursue real change to secure the wellbeing for all our communities.  Using a virtual platform to connect with our global network is not only a new and exciting prospect, it is also an opportunity for GLEPHA to provide leadership and embrace responsible approaches to collaboration during a pandemic.

The LEPH 2021 conference has created a tiered fee schedule to make registering for this event as accessible as possible, while maintaining the high quality of sessions that we expect of this international gathering.  We feel privileged to offer an exclusive rate for those delegates that will virtually join us from low and middle-income countries, and as always we strongly encourage students to collaborate with us using the student rate.  Please visit our Eventbrite page here to learn more about the attendance fees and to register for the conference.  We are excited to be partnering with Whova as our official event app, and we encourage you to download the app early and explore how you might leverage this platform to maximize your conference experience.  There are a number of user guides and tutorials that you can access at Whova to gain confidence and be ready when the virtual doors are opened.

Please consider joining us at the LEPH 2021 conference, and contribute to both the conversation and the movement to secure a shared space between community health, safety and collective wellbeing.  You will be introduced to the generous and hard-working partners that inspire us in the City of Philadelphia, and have the unique opportunity to network with delegates from around the globe in which I personally hope will become our best international representation yet.

Jamie

September 2020

Larry Krasner
District Attorney of Philadelphia

After attending my first LEPH in Scotland in 2019, I was thrilled to learn that the first LEPH conference ever to be held in the USA would be hosted in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The city where the Declaration of Independence was signed has a long history of challenging the status quo, and this tradition continued when I was elected on a reform agenda to serve as the District Attorney of Philadelphia. While we have taken many positive steps in the past few years, it is my belief that engaging with the LEPH network provides the unique knowledge, relationships, and perspective necessary to pursue systemic and holistic change – I hope you will join us.

Your participation in the first virtual LEPH conference will help bring the potential of international experiences with problem-solving to a city that must continue reforming how it responds to social problems. Whereas roughly 1 in 40 US adults are under correctional supervision, in 2020 roughly 1 in 21 adults in Philadelphia are on probation or parole, in local jails, or in state prisons. Yet, in spite of mass incarceration and mass supervision, we are not safer: there have been over 300 homicide victims in Philadelphia as of September 11, 2020, continuing a multi-year trend and paralleling the recent rise in homicides in US cities during COVID-19. Hosting LEPH represents an opportunity for Philadelphia to learn from the best approaches in public safety and health the world over.

Between now and March, I invite you to engage with some of the resources my office has made available to the public:

  1. Please visit our website, featuring our Public Data Dashboard, data.philadao.com

  2. Please follow us on Medium and subscribe to our monthly Justice Journal to learn about the work of the District Attorney’s Office and its personnel

  3. Follow me and the Philadelphia DAO on social media

Wishing everyone safety and health,

Larry Krasner

August 2020

Conference Program Director, Professor Nick Crofts AM
President, Global Law Enforcement and Public Health Association

The first International LEPH Conference, in 2012, was a small affair. Growth in activity and interest in the field of the multiple intersections of law enforcement and public health since then has been prodigious – we are now welcoming you to the 6th International LEPH Conference, the first in the U.S. (though circumstances have forced us online), and I am doing so on behalf of the Global LEPH Association (GLEPHA), which has grown out of the conferences.

GLEPHA is becoming active across all regions of the world, and is developing Special Interest Groups focusing on the law enforcement role in achieving public health goals in a myriad of issues. This regional and topical breadth will be reflected in the conference program, and in the satellite and pre-conference activities organized by the SIGs.

The field of law enforcement by its nature brings in conflict; but GLEPHA works to achieve a safe space for those from all sectors committed to achieving effective and inclusive partnership approaches to complex health and security issues. This is what we strive to provide, and what we hope you will find, at the 6th International Conference on Law Enforcement and Public Health.

See you there, virtually.
Nick

July 2020

Conference Director, Professor Jennifer Wood
Temple University

On behalf of the local Organizing Committee, I am delighted to invite you to the 6th LEPH conference in March 2021.  This will be the first time that the conference will be hosted in the United States.

It will also be the first time that the conference will occur on a virtual platform.  A virtual conference provides new opportunities to expand the global reach of the conference series and to inspire jurisdictions from across the world to make concrete changes in furtherance of community safety and wellbeing.

This conference was made possible by the exciting collaboration between Temple University, Drexel University, Rutgers University-Camden, the University of Pennsylvania and Thomas Jefferson University. We are honored that these universities are convening this event in partnership. Stay tuned for updates on our website (https://leph2021philadelphia.com/) to learn about invited speakers and planned sessions, and the many ways you can participate in this event and build networks with people working in the many shared spaces of law enforcement and public health.

These include pandemics, alcohol and other drug use, mental health, racial, economic and gender equity, violence, trauma-informed approaches, and many more.

Thank you,
Jen.

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