By Maya Hazarika Watts, Katie Hannon Michel, Jessica Breslin, and Elizabeth Tobin-Tyler, American Journal of Public Health, February 10, 2021
As COVID-19 inflicts disproportionate harm on communities of color, inequitable enforcement of pandemic response policies further widens health disparities. (Although “pandemic response policies” include many interventions, we use the term to reference public health policies adopted to limit viral spread.) These actions are extensions of persistent systemic failures in public health enforcement writ large that have deleterious health impacts (e.g., chronic failure to enforce health and safety regulations, such as housing safety codes, and selective enforcement of certain public health laws, such as antismoking ordinances, that target and displace unhoused individuals). Furthermore, using police to enforce public health laws—during the pandemic and beyond—is especially problematic from a health justice perspective in communities of color, given police violence against marginalized groups.
Equitable enforcement should be used to promote racial justice and ensure that public health laws have their intended effect. Inequitable enforcement harms public health through overenforcement, in which some communities are disproportionately affected by punitive enforcement approaches, and underenforcement, in which some communities experience inconsistent enforcement of public health laws. Equitable enforcement ensures compliance with the law while considering and minimizing harms to marginalized communities. An equitable enforcement approach considers racial and health justice at the levels of agency strategy and individual actions. It also considers equity at all enforcement stages—from determining when to enforce a law, and against whom, to deciding which enforcement tools to use.
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