The aim of the SIPR conference is to start to dissect policing and public health issues, recognise emerging themes, identify what works, where new opportunities lie, and help build police-public health partnerships that are effective, accountable, sustainable and inclusive.
Globally, there is a growing recognition of a shared common ground between police and public health services. For example, the areas of mental health distress, domestic abuse, substance use, knife violence, missing persons, custody care and cyber-bullying, to name a few, all have a clear cross–agency remit. This in turn sees an emerging vision for contemporary collaborative police and public health fields of practice, which more effectively and efficiently address the complex needs of people and communities. Yet, the links between policing and health are inextricable, with the intersections still poorly understood. Policing and public health practice, education and research has evolved through two distinctly different systems with divergent cultures, roots, and practices.
