Insights from law enforcement personnel during the COVID-19 pandemic: a focus on violence reduction and prevention initiatives and firearm violence

ABSTRACT In the United States (U.S.), elevated levels of firearm violence following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in late March 2020 drew attention to efforts taken by law enforcement to reduce and prevent firearm violence through policing innovations. However, it is not well-understood how operational changes in policing during this time impacted these efforts. Our study is the first to consider the perceptions and experiences of law enforcement personnel during the pandemic as it relates to violence reduction and prevention initiatives (VRPIs) and firearm violence, more broadly. By leveraging partnerships between an academic research team and law enforcement practitioners, our action research approach is well-positioned to offer recommendations to support policies and practices that are responsive to emerging crises. While our study is based within the U.S., our focus on the impact of a global phenomenon on firearm violence is of international interest. To this end, an anonymous and voluntary online survey was distributed to both sworn and civilian personnel of the Detroit Police Department (Detroit, Michigan) in August 2020 to understand how the department’s VRPIs and related routine police operations were impacted during the pandemic, and identify potential community and criminal justice system drivers of firearm violence during this time. Our focus on the city of Detroit represents a unique opportunity to explore these connections given the city’s volume of firearm violence, as well as the severity and scope of challenges faced in cities of color. We discuss how our findings can be applied to guide the construction of systems that are more robust against and responsive to external and internal pressures. We also provide several recommendations to guide future research in this area.